Full text of "Rhythmotherapy; a discussion of the physiologic basis and therapeutic potency of mechano-vital vibration, to which is added a dictionary of diseases with suggestions as to the technic of vibratory therapeutics"

See other formats

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.

We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http : //books . google . com/

This book presented

Stanford School of licdioizie

R« Wt O^Bannon. }.!• D«
(Retired)

Hollister California

•MtiMq«M MmrMorc CO utmo

Rhythmotherapy

A DISCUSSION OP THE PHYSIOLOGIC BASIS
AND THERAPEUTIC POTENCY OP

MECHANO-VITAL VIBRATION

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A DICTIONARY OF DISEASES

WITH SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE
TECHNIC OP

VIBRATORY THERAPEUTICS

With Illustrations

SAMUEL S. WALLIAN. A.M.. M.D.

President American Medico-Pfiarmaceudcal League, Ex-President Medica
Association of Northern New York, Member New York State
and G>unty Medical Societies, Fellow of the American
Electro -Therapeutic Association, Member
Medico-Legal Society, Associate
Editor Medico-Pharma-
ceutical Journal
Etc.

CHICAGO

THS OUSLLETTE PRESS

1 906

Samuel S. Wallian
AU rights reserved

m • %

•9 m • • •

• • • • • •

Rhythm is the Underlying Law of the Universe.

The "Music of the Spheres*' is as Real and Demonstrable
as any Law of Mathematics.

The Morning Stars have been Singing Together since the
Primal Dawn,

Life is an Incessant Sitccessian of Rhythmic Reiteration.

Disease is the Opening of a Discordant Stop.

Death is a Cessation of Vibrant Impulse. It shuts the
Organ Manual.

Fate is the Architect of the Organ.

The ** Voice of Nature" is the Diapason of the Infinite.

Music is Vibrant Harmony. It is Love struggling for a
Language.

Love is Music that has found a Langu>age.

Hate is the Clash of Antagonistic Vibrations.

NON-PREFATORY

The busy Physician is obliged to read as
he runs and run as he reads.

Prefaces are generally Apologies, and to
most readers an Apology is an Impertinence.

To read the average Preface is to regret
lost time.

The intelligently impatient reader premedi-
tatedly ignores it.

This is not a Preface but a Disclaimer.

AT THE THRESHOLD

Somewhat heterogeneously thrown tOf-
gether, in the interrupted and uncertain in-
tervals of a busy practice, this little brochure
is diffidently commended and committed to
the charitable indulgence of professional col-
leagues who are equally ambitious and equal-
ly in earnest in the unceasing quest for help-
ful therapeutic hints.

If the suggestions offered prove assuring
to beginners, and an incentive to others to
delve deeper, for more comprehensive facts
and apter illustrations, the author will stand
self-acquitted.

CONTENTS

Non-prefatory v

At the Threshold vi

Contents vii-viii

List of Illustrations ix

Rhythmic Theraft:

Non-historic 11

Semi-historic 12

Nature an Epitome of Rhythmic Reiteration 15

Nature of Matter 19

Mechanical Vibration Therapeutically Invoked 22

The Trend Toward Natural Therapeutics 24

Frequency and Voltage 28

Physiology and Pathology 37

Physiologic Basis 41

How Vibration Produces Its Results 45

What is Stimulation? 46

Nomenclature 49

Rationale of Vibratory Therapeutics 52

Massage Contrasted 53

Trophic Centers 56

Diagnostic Suggestions 58

As a Source of Immunity 60

Stimulation and Elimination 65

How Mechanical Vibration Aids Elimination 66

Mechano-Vital Vibration vs. Drugs 67

Physiologic Confirmation 69

Practical Application 74

Applicability and Results 77

Vll

CONTENTS— CoTKtnuerf

Some Clinical Proofs 80

Technic of the Treatment 81

Essentials of a Good Vibrator 88

Forms of Applicators or Vibratodes 91

Fluid Cushion Vibration 92

Length of Stroke and Time of Application 94

Force and Frequency 96

Posture of the Patient 100

A Digression on Diet 101

Modem Dietic Mistakes 104

Dietic Science 106

A Defense of Cranks 112

Getting Back to Nature 114

Pure Food and Poor Food 117

A New Field for Vibratorj- Treatment 118

The Provmce of Inhibition 126

Suggestions as to Selecting an Instrument 128

Dictionary of Diseases 131-210

Vlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE I Facing page 36

Fig. 1 Ball Applicator or Vibratode.

2 Large Concave Disk Vibratode.

3 Small Flat Disk Vibratode.

4 Curved Arm and Wrist Vibratode.

5 Large, Soft Rubber Bell Vibratode.

PLATE II Facing page 68

Fig. 6 Small, Soft Rubber Bell Applicator.

7 Small, Soft Rubber Bell Applicator with flanged mouth.

8 Brush Applicator.

9 Soft Rubber Brush for the Scalp and Sensitive

Surfaces.
10 Short Fluid Applicator for Rectum, Vagina, etc.

PLATE III Facing page 80

Fig. 11 Long Fluid Applicator for Rectum and Vagina.

12 Extra Long Fluid Applicator with Attachment Cor

Flushing Colon.

13 Metal Cone for Dilating Sphincter ani and Reducing

Hemorrhoids.

PLATE IV Facing page 90

Fig. 14 Small Fluid Applicator for Sensitive Points.

15 Small Fluid Applicator for Ear, etc.

16 Large Fluid Applicator for Face, Eye and Sensi-

tive Points-

PLATE V Facing page 136

The Human Figure — Anterior View.
Showing, in colors, Surface Areas Refiexly Asso-
ciated with Visceral Disease, and Directly Related to
the Various Spinal Ganglia.

PLATE VI Facing page 136

The Human Figure — Posterior View.
Showing Related Areas, as in Plate V.

PLATE VII Facing page 166

Fig. 17 Fluid Two-way Vaginal Applicator.
18 Attachment for Operating same.

PLATE VIII Facing page 188

Fig. 19 Fluid Vaginal Applicator, with Attachment in
Position.

RHYTHMIC THERAPY.
NON-HISTORIC.

The history of a science, or of a new
therapeutic measure has its value to the stu-
dent of scientific or medical history, and may
be both curious and interesting to the gen-
eral practitioner of medicine; but it is of
little practical value to those who are study-
ing the scientific and clinical credentials of
any novel therapeutic claim.

Despite the citation of many very ancient
names, concerning the therapeutic value of
various forms of body frictions and manual
massage, rhythmic reiteration, or mechanical
vibration proper, as a remedial measure, can
claim but a very brief and recent history.
Hence, citing these ancient sages as advo-
cates of the modern measure is straining a
historical point, without accomplishing any
practical purpose. It is easy to establish the
fact that long before the Christian Era phil-
osophers and advocates of the healing art, in
its primitive stages, extolled the results of
applied motion, friction and percussion, in
the treatment of certain forms of deformity
and disease. It is quite as easy to prove that
these manipulations were scarcely suggest-

ive of the processes now described under the
head of therapeutic mechanical vibration.
The would-be historians of the subject cite,
among other names, Homer, Heroditus, As-
clepiades, Pliny, Galen, Oribasius, Paracelsus
and Ambrose Pare ; but the connection is far-
fetched and impertinent.

Even the association of the more modern
names of Grosvenor, Barclay, Ling, Zander,
Taylor, Kellogg, Sargent and Savage is
scarcely warranted, since these men had only
the vaguest conception of the nature and
possibilities of rhythmic vibratory mechanical
applications, affecting deep nerve ganglia. It
would be equally apt to say that the bob sled
and the stage coach were the pioneers of the
palace car and wireless telegraphy.

Rhythmic Reiteration, in the guise of mod-
ern vibratory therapeutics, is therefore prac-
tically without a history.

SEMI-HISTORIC.

Vigoroux of Paris may rightfully claim the
honor of being one of the first, if not the
first to make a definite and practical appli-
cation of mechanical rhythm or vibration as
a curative agent. His device, of a quarter
of a century ago, would now be called crude
and fanciful. It consisted of an immense
tuning fork, attached to a sounding case, and

was operated by means of a bow. He named
it a "Diapason," which directly suggests
rhythmic and musical motion. With this
primitive apparatus he experimented quite
extensively in the treatment of cases of a
nervous character, chiefly hysteria, and in
spite of much ridicule on the part of some
of his colleagues he met with considerable
success. He could promptly relieve hemian-
esthesia, and was quite surprised to find that
contracted muscles responded to rhythmic
treatment quite as readily as to the electric
current he had formerly employed. He suc-
ceeded, also, in decidedly mitigating the
pains of locomotor ataxia, which he had
failed to do with the current. His repeated
experiments led him to announce his belief
that the influence of mechanical or mechano-
musical vibrations was in effect similar to,
but more effective than the use of electricity.
A few years later, prompted by Vigoroux's
published reports, Boudet undertook the
study of the subject from the standpoint of
the physiologist. In other words he applied
rhythmic mechanical vibration, as derived
from a modified form of the apparatus of
Vigoroux, to healthy subjects, and analyzed
the recorded results.

By applying vibrating disks over the course
of a superficial nerve, especially when such
nerve passes over a thinly covered bony struc-

ture, for example, the supra-orbital ridge,
Boudet succeeded in inducing a marked de-
gree of local anesthesia, which persisted for
several minutes. Finding this result to be
uniform instead of occasional and incidental
he was not mistaken in inferring that the
same applications would relieve a painful con-
dition of any nerve that could be thus reached.
Following these encouraging results with fur-
ther experiments, he applied rapid but gentle
vibration to the walls of the cranium, where-
by the brain itself was rhythmically affected,
and a coming migrain almost invariably
aborted.

Following Boudet, Granville, after corrob-
orating his predecessor's encouraging exper-
iences, conducted some original experiments
of his own, and accomplished results in the
treatment of neurasthenic and neuralgic con-
ditions which attracted considerable profes-
sional attention. He was instigated to try
some of his experiments from having ob-
served that patients suffering from nervous
disorders, especially paralysis agitans, were
markedly benefitted by journeys made in or-
dinary carriages, but more particularly when
traveling in railway coaches. He attributed
the beneficial effects to the constant repeti-
tion of vibratory jar and the rhythmic, os-
cillating motion transmitted by the moving
vehicle.

Prior to these interesting experiments Bar-
clay, Balfour and others advocated percus-
sion, in connection with friction and mas-
sage, in the treatment of muscular contrac-
tions, rheumatism, gout and debility of the
extremities; but, as already remarked, these
pioneers did little more than to blaze the
way to the discovery of mechano-vital vi-
bration, and the therapeutic potency of
rhythm, as now realized.

NATURE AN EPITOME OF RHYTHMIC
REITERATION.

Richet maintains that the external world is
neither more nor less than an embodiment and
materialization of either blending or contrasting
vibrations.

Accepting this postulate every individual or-
ganization consists of a system or series of ryth-
mic, concentric and constantly reiterated vibra-
tions, an organic materialization of energy.

The universe itself is therefore a realm of ryth-
mic reiteration. Planets revolve, whole systems
of suns sweep through illimitable space, moons
wax and wane, tides ebb and flow, and even the
seemingly erratic comets have their fixed or-
bits and exact periods, — all obeying the uni-
versal law of harmony. The "music of the
spheres" is not a rhetorical figment of poetic
imagination, but a rhythmic verity.

Rhythm is in every case the embodiment and
resultant of Vibration. All motion, force, heat,
light, electricity, and the materialization of these
elemental forces in organic guise, called Life, let
it be reiterated, originate and are perpetuated by
Vibration. Vibration is consequently the Funda-
mental Law of material existence. It is all-per-
meating and incessant It was in the beginning,
has never for a moment ceased and will be in the
end. To interrupt it would be to send all the
infinite systems of suns with their complex gal-
axies of satellites hurtling through unresisting
space to a common and universal destruction.
Pursuing and reiterating the thought, all organic
life emanates from inorganic nature by means of
vibratory impulse and persists only through the
incessant prompting of vital vibration.

Health is a condition or sequence of harmo-
nious vibration, — ^physiologic rhjrthm.

Disease is interrupted, discordant or arhythmic
vibrations.

Death is the cessation or permanent interrup-
tion of organic vibrations.

Thus, three sentences epitomize a volume of
Physiology, Philosophy and Physics.

The vital cycle includes, first, molecular or
ethereal, second, bioplasmic, and third, structural
or organic vibrations, resulting in a living organ-
ism — ^plant or animal, the two species differing
only in the pitch and wave-length of the involved
vibrations.

Admitting these premises, Evolution is easily
recognized as a rational sequence, and the law
of natural selection governing the origin of spe-
cies is as simple as the multiplication table. Both
follow as unimportant details in the wake of Cre-
ative Energy.

As human beings, representing the highest
evolved order of organic life, we exist, because
every molecule of matter entering into the com-
position of our bodies maintains a condition of
constant transition, through this universal law
of vibration, or organic rhythm.

If this corpuscular, ionic or ethereal iteration
of motion could be wholly suspended, even for a
moment, the law of cohesion would be subverted,
and all organic life would be annihilated. It is
impossible, else Natiu-e herself would drag her
anchors, and Order would be swallowed up in the
ancient sea of Chaos.

Scientific deduction to date warrants the as-
sumption that electricity is neither more or less
than an intensified modality of motion, a distinct
and individualized manifestation of force, which
may be further described — ^all descriptions being
as yet inadequate, — as a rhythmic modus of
mechanical energy.

We also now know that all chemical action
and reactions are in the nature of vibrations. In
other words, chemical action consists essentially
of a bombardment of attracted and repelled cor-
puscles, which, when brought in contact, inter-
change and antagonize, flow and reflow, until

through elemental decomposition and recombina-
tion an inter-corpuscular equilibritun has been
accomplished.

Heat, light and chemism have been accred-
ited as the three primal forces of nature, but it is
evident that all of them are secondary, since they
are results and not causes. They do not appear
except as sequences of rhythmic vibratory
motion.

Another effort at "definition asserts that the
trio of forces or modalities of energy originating,
sustaining and controlling all forms or expres-
sions of organic life are attraction, repulsion,
and vibration. The author of this definition
cites in corroboration the phenomenon that
the cell or primary unit of organization at-
tracts its required pabulum, repels or rejects
refuse, and is itself actuated by vibratory
motion.

By a consensus of all these definitions rhythm
or vibratory motion is the fundamental basis of
all organic life, the source and secret of every
form of vital energy.

Referring again to electricity, the modern
high-frequency currents are in every instance
rhythmically interrupted currents, which is
the logical and technical name for vibratory
currents. Their voltage increases with the
frequency of the interruptions or vibrations,
until by means of the higher grades of ap-
paratus devised by Tesla, D'Arsonval and

others the voltage attained is scarcely com-
putable by any existing standards, estimates
varying from 500,000 to several millions of
volts. But for the merely nominal amperage
involved, these currents could not be safely
manipulated, but would be utterly unsafe and
beyond control, for clinical or therapeutic
purposes.

The high-frequency current asserts its
rhythmic or vibratory character in its name.
It possesses such penetrative power that or-
dinary non-conducting bodies do not seem
to seriously impede it. It traverses the air,
wood, rubber, glass, silk and other reputed
non-conducting materials with the greatest
facility. An unconnected incandescent light,
even at considerable distance from a passing
high-frequency current, is caused to glow
with many times its ordinary brilliancy. The
fairly incredible velocity, or if we might call
it impetuosity, of this high-frequency current,
and its power of penetration, confirm its
character as an elemental force, and, as al-
ready intimated, closely allied to if not iden-
tical with creative energy.

NATURE OF BiATTER.

One of the most radical and important of
these rehabilitations pertains to the nature of
matter itself. By way of example, atoms

have ceased to be considered ultimates, and
no scientist now attempts to dissociate mat-
ter and motion, substance and condition.
The ion, standing for the time being as a
hypothetical unite of force or motion, has
supplanted the time-honored role of the prac-
tically discarded molecule; and matter, it
is now held, becomes a visible and palpable
manifestation or entity only when combin-
ing or combating motions or forces of some
kind are brought in contact.

If we admit this last postulate of science,
it may be reiterated that matter is merely
a modality of motion, a variety of vibration,
whose rate and rhythm are both invisible
and incomputable. As a legitimate corollary
any given material substance, its nature,
form, character and proportions, depend en-
tirely on the rate, rh3rthm and tension of the
vibrations by which it makes itself mani-
fest.

Thus these later revelations of science
have made necessary a revision of our con-
ceptions of the origin of matter, and of the
life principle.

Succinctly, as already stated, life and mat-
ter are both conditions. The first we call
immaterial, yet both are modalities or
rhythmic manifestations of vibratory impulse.

Just as color depends on the velocity of
light undulations, each particular form of

matter has its individual and distinctive vi-
bratory rate and rhythm. This rate or ve-
locity determines the form or condition in
which matter becomes visible, whether solid,
liquid, or aeriform, whether granite, gos-
samer, gold, or a gas.

Given a modicum of dust, itself a resultant
of vibratory motion, add an electric thrill;
result, a cell. A second thrill eventuates in
cell propagation, proliferation by spontan-
eous fission. The single cell becomes two,
four, sixty-four, a million, a thousand mil-
lions. But for antagonistic and counteracting
influences, a single cell would soon people
the earth, and overwhelm the solar system.

This is geometric progression, evolution,
— is it creation?

The cell advances and changes its char-
acter and destiny with each change of
rhythm or vibratory velocity. The ameba is
displaced by the mollusk, the mollusk by a
megasoma, a mammal, a monkey — ^a man.
Each change and gradation is not a trans-
formation, as mollusk into mammal, or mon-
key into man, but an evidence of a variation
and acceleration in vibratory velocity.

A certain rate begets a vermis, another
and higher rate produces a viper, a verte-
brate, — a vestryman.

This obviates the necessity for a m)rthical
"Missing Link."

MECHANICAL VIBRATION THER-
APEUTICALLY INVOKED.

Reiterating what was tersely stated under
a previous caption, when organized struc-
tures or individual organisms encounter a
force counter to their own ionic or corpuscu-
lar rhythm, and powerful enough to tem-
porarily interrupt their incessant motion, we
call the interruption disease. When this an-
tagonistic force persists and prevails, the
stoppage or cessation of motion is called
death.

The sway of this force is all-pervading and
universal. Remedial agencies of whatever
kind can not be dissociated from it, and the
more nearly they are arranged en rapport
with its simple laws the more prompt and
satisfactory the results. Recuperative effort
is essentially an effort to restore undulatory,
rhythmic or vibratory equilibrium. That me-
chanical vibration can be made a valuable —
perhaps invaluable and indispensable aid to
other methods, in combating diseased condi-
tions is not a question of plausibility, but of
fact and availability. To what extent arti-
ficial vibratory impulse and nerve stimulation
can be made to supplement or perhaps sub-
stitute vital vibrations, and to substitute or
supplement normal organic stimuli, remains
to be demonstrated. Results already at-

tained, some of them by means of the crud-
est and most primitive appliances, warrant
the prediction that mechanical or artificial
vibration will prove one of the most valu-
able acquisitions to the field of general medi-
cine made during the past quarter of a cen-
tury. As with all novel therapeutic meas-
ures much bungling is being done by care-
less and superficial investigators, many of
them failing to discriminate the radical dif-
ference between mechanical massage and me-
chanical vibration. It is also notorious that
all such measures are promptly championed
by two classes who hinder their proper rec-
ognition and do them harm. The first are
the charlatans proper, who exploit without
understanding them, making advertising fads
of them for mercenary purposes. The sec-
ond class includes the overenthusiasts, who
are too full of unintelligent zeal to be other
than hasty, superficial and unscientific in
their investigations.

Both these classes amuse when they do not
disgust reputable physicians, who are pro-
fessionally conscientious and traditionally
painstaking and conservative.

On the other hand, even the most valu-
able, rational and legitimate among novel
therapeutic claims are often irrationally and
inconsiderately rejected and cynically con-
demned by two classes of professional men.

The first class includes those who are over-
weighted with conceit as to their present at-
tainments. What they do not know is either
unknowable, or ought not to be known. The
second is made up of men who are too in-
dolent or too indifferent to investigate, and
of very good men who are both clever and
conscientious, but who are incurably myopic
as to facts, theories and principles that are
not mossy with age, musty with tradition,
and abundantly attested and corroborated by
a countless array of precedents, and pages of
ambiguous if not intentionally or unintention-
ally misleading statistics.

To this unfortunate condition and prevail-
ing rule mechano-rhythmic therapy is prov-
ing no exception. It stands today about
where therapeutic electricity stood twenty-
five years ago.

THE TREND TOWARD NATURAL
THERAPEUTICS.

In an ultimate and strictly logical sense
all therapeutic means are natural, since out-
side of Nature there is nothing. But the
expression "Natural Therapeutics," by com-
mon consent has come to mean those meas-
ures that involve the forces, influences and
materials of Nature, at first hand, as op-

posed to the technically artificial resources
of the chemist and pharmacist.

The trend of therapeutic investigation and
experiment, for the past half century, has
been decidedly in the direction of natural
therapeutics, and the past decade has been
productive of more progress in the way of
practical results in this field than at any sim-
ilar period in the world's history.

The medical historian of the year 2,000,
in attempting to write a retrospective re-
view of the medical history of the current
century will no doubt call attention to the
present as the initial period of phenomenal
activity, in the matter of analyzing, adapting
and utilizing physiologic measures and me-
chanical forces for medical and surgical pur-
poses.

More and more clearly it is coming to be
realized that while Art can do much toward
putting disordered vital machinery into bet-
ter order, can adjust Toose pulleys, remove
dirt and obstacles, lubricate friction points,
arouse dormant functions, with a view to re-
storing an equilibrium of action and reaction.
Nature, — the vital forces, — must do all the
real and permanent reparative work. These
forces are dirigible, but never supplantable.

Hence the incessant search for normal and
legitimate therapeutic auxiliaries, and for
avenues and opportunities of Art that are

immune to scientific criticism, that, in short,
second and supplement nature's methods and
efforts.

As conclusive evidence of this rapidly
broadening field of Natural Therapeutics we
have only to glance at the columns of a mod-
ern medical lexicon, and look through the
pages of current medical journals, to realize
the rapid and constant additions to our ther-
apeutic vocabulary. To the bare Climatology
and Hydrotherapy of medical dictionaries not
two decades old, we now have Aerotherapy
Balneotherapy, Crounotherapy, Christian
Science Healing, Dietotherapy, Heliotherapy,
Hypnototherapy, Kinesi therapy, Mechano-
therapy, Mental Science Healing, Opopathy,
Organotherapy, Osteopathy, Phototherapy,
Physicopathy, Pneumotherapy, Psychothera-
py, Radiotherapy, Serotherapy, Thermother-
apy, and others of less general acceptance.
Let us now add Rhythmotherapy.

It is a significant f^ct that the most strik-
ing advance in the entire field has been in
the direction of Mechanotherapy. This in-
cludes almost every form of physical exer-
cise, ordinary massage, and a great variety
of natural and mechanical manipulations, the
descriptive names of which had not been
dreamed of by the lexicographers of even a
decade ago.

Among the latest of these to assert itself
and attract the attention of advanced thera-
peutists foremost is, unquestionably, Mc-
chano-vital Vibration. And, as has already
been emphasized. Vibration and vital mani-
festation are so closely allied and so nearly
identical that a resort to artificial vibration
suggests itself as a perfectly rational and
promising therapeutic measure. The prin-
ciple is by no means new, since really there
can be nothing radically new under the
shining sun or the shimmering stars; but re-
cent revelations in science, and clinical ex-
periments that are being daily corroborated
and made more comprehensive have given
it a new impulse, for they establish the fact,
already set forth, that Creative Energy and
Vibration are practically synonymous terms.
The material universe, let it be reiterated, is
itself a realm of associated, rhythmically re-
volving and vibrant nuclei.

A generation ago the publication of "A
System of Physiologic Therapeutics/' com-
prised in a series of eleven sumptuously
printed volumes, edited by one of the fore-
most practitioners and clinicians of the age,
and prepared by men of professional pre-emi-
nence on both sides of the Atlantic, would
have been considered prima facie evidence of
a crack-brained editor and an indiscreet pub-
lisher. It would have added one more bulky

item to the many examples of dead stock
on the medical book-seller's shelves. Today
this work is on the shelves of all progressive
medical student's libraries.

All these advances are strictly in line with
other scientific and evolutionary changes, de-
velopments and readjustments of thought
and theory, regarding the origin of force and
matter, and of their countless combinations
and reactions. All the older theories have
been challenged, and many of them set aside
as incompetent and unsatisfactory.

FREQUENCY AND VOLTAGE.

The photogenic or light waves make vis-
ible all that is visible of the universe. The
next higher rate of ethereal vibrations gradu-
ally merges into and manifests itself as chem-
ical waves. These chemical waves preside
over all organic processes.

Sound waves have their distinctive velocity
and are transmitted by the atmosphere or
other fluid medium. Scientists insist that it
is a technical mistake to assume that a bell
struck in vacuo emits no sound. The vi-
brations occur and the sound is emitted, but
there is no medium of transmission. The vi-
brations associated with animal life are not
ordinarily audible. In certain conditions, —

usually abnormal ones, — it has been sug-
gested that they become distinctly audible;
for example, in the condition known as cin-
chonism, and exaggeratedly so in Meniere's
disease, etc. Sound has been described as
molar or mass vibration.

Light waves, undulations, or vibrations, —
the terms are interchangeable but not strictly
synonymous, — have a velocity of nearly 200,-
000 miles per second. Next above these, in
fact occupying the extreme limit of the spec-
tral image, but having a rapidity so great
that it can be only speculatively computed,
are the newly discovered chemical or actinic
ra3rs, a group that either transcends or in-
cludes all the newest and least known of the
list, — Roentgen or x-ray, b-ray, n-ray, ultra-
violet, d'Arsonval and other mysterious phe-
nomena of the electricians are merely varia-
tions in the rhythm of certain induced vibra-
tions. The new metals, radium, polonium,
etc., manifest themselves only by means of
radiations, and these are simply vibrations
whose rate has not yet been computed.

Heat waves are usually invisible. When
their velocity is increased to a certain rate
they affect the eye as red light This is the
first stage or degree of visibility. As the
rapidity or velocity increases the various col-
ors of the spectrum, one after another be-
come manifest, until the violet is reached, at

winch potxtt an the rays merge and form tiie
most mTstcrioos of the entire series, already
leferre d to as the extreme ilmnkjl rays.
These are also nnrisible.

In coanectkn with this stndy of wave-ye-
locitics we are met with the scientific par-
ado3c. already adrerted to, that there may be
dnk Ef^it; that is, fight waves that are or-
dinarily invisible; and aflcnt aoondy or sound
waves that are ordinarily inaudible.

Thns, the normal hnman ear has definite
auditory limitations, above and below which
are high and low realms of inaudibility, the
extent of which can <Mily be imagined. Sci-
entists have determined that these are not
realms of actual silence, but merely extend
beyond the ken of the ordinary human ear.
Abnormal or supernormal human ears, and
the more acute senses of some members of
the animal kingdom have a wider range of
audition.

Light vibrations, or velocities are normally
limited in direction to planes that are par-
allel with the direction of their advance. By
the interposition of certain substances, such
AS a crystal of tourmaline, they are diverted
\o a single plane, and this result is called
poUrization. Polarized light has some uses
\\\ optics and in qualitative analysis; but its
aull0it» i« limited. Polarization is therefore
interference in the rhythm or direction of

vibration, or in both rhythm and direction.
By analogy it is rational to assume that
normal nervous impulses may become dislo-
cated, impeded or interrupted by certain in-
terferences, in which condition they may be
said to be polarized.

In case of the light rays the interposition
of a second crystal of tourmaline, with its
line of axis at right angles with the first,
entirely quenches the rays; but by rotating
the crystals until their axes coincide the vi-
brations are resumed, and rays pass.

This illustrates how small an influence may
be made to initiate radical and far-reaching
results in physics. The rule or law holds
equally in physiology. The prick of a hypo-
dermic needle, pushing the one-hundred-and-
fiftieth part of a grain of the proper alkaloid,
quells a maniac, or antagonizes a toxic dose
of some virulent poison. It is no more
strange that a few minutes manipulation of
a vibrating disk speeded at from 5,000 to
9,000 or more alternations per minute, over
a demoralized nerve center, should transform
arhythmic into rhythmic impulses or condi-
tions, and abnormal into normal vibrations.

Heat originates in at least three ways, — ^by
friction, collision of matter, and by chemical
combustion. It is easy to demonstrate that
all three of these processes or results can be
effected by mechanical vibration. Heat itself

18 a rhythmic vibration of the molecules, or
ultimate subdivisions of matter, among them-
selves. It is called insensible heat when it
is produced by motion or vibrations gauged
below a certain rate of frequency or velocity.
It becomes sensible heat when the rotation
or vibrations reach a certain higher veloc-
ity.

To the ordinary practitioner, accustomed
to rely exculsively on his pharmaceutic al-
lies, it seems a presumptuous and illogical in-
novation to attempt to induce specific physi-
ologic reactions, by means of which definite
therapeutic results may be confidently ex-
pected, through rhythmic mechanical meas-
ures, however intelligently adapted and ap-
plied ; but a very little clinical experience will
prove thoroughly convincing, and is usually
a very gratifying surprise. That such means
can be made helpful to some extent in in-
cipient paralyses, in atrophy of muscles, and
in case of sluggish functions, would be nat-
urally inferred and generally admitted, even
by those who are skeptical as to more am-
bitious claims; but it is a genuine surprise,
to even the favorably impressed and expec-
tant clinician, when he sees serious engorge-
ments and congestions, and even marked and
more or less chronic hypertrophies dispersed
or absorbed, as a result of mechanical vibra-
tion, applied at a distant and apparently in-

different point. For example, the prompt
emptying of recent hemorrhoidal tumors and
varicose veins, or the reduction and virtual
abortion of hyperplasias and forming ab-
scesses, through absorption, rapidly induced
by vibratory stimulation of elminating or-
gans, — liver, spleen, neighboring lymphatics,
etc.

This suggests a wide field in which rhyth-
mic vibratory treatment is clearly and ration-
ally indicated as safe, sane and synergetic of
any and all other approved measures.

It is a long stride forward in the field of
therapeutic progress when the sometimes baf-
fled clinician can lay aside both his well-
thumbed pharmacopeia and his overworked
surgical case, and confidently appeal to what
may be termed natural and physiologic meas-
ures, in his efforts to remove accumulated
obstructions, restore deranged functions, and
restrain abnormal vital action. The number
of diseases, by whatever name they may be
called, in which one or more of these results
is insistently aimed at and vitally important,
is anything but limited. It includes nearly
all chronic and many acute maladies or con-
ditions. And aside from the long list of well-
defined and catalogued ailments there is a
pathologic realm in which technical land-
marks are lost sight of, and the diagnosis
is summed up in a complexity of distresses

and discomforts quite as hard to endure and
harder to get rid of than many diseases that
wear dignified and definite names.

As is well known every balance wheel and
machine may be temporarily paralyzed by
being accidently stopped on its "dead-
center." There are vital dead centers as well
as mechanical ones. The onus of invention
for the past century has been to abolish this
dead-center, just as the investigating thera-
peutists have been ransacking earth, air and
water, the heavens above and the seas be-
neath, for means by which to overcome the
universal tendency to vital dead-centers,
since the analogy holds good in vital dy-
namics. It is the commonest thing in the
world for some nerve center or ganglion to
find itself temporarily stunned, unable to
functionate, and perhaps a focus and storm
center of pain. Such a ganglion is practi-
cally on its dead-center. Vital force is want-
ing, but the inhibited ganglion or center has
no power within itself to hand-lift the stalled
piston or poise-arrested balance wheel over
its kinetic dead-center.

Every resource of art having any claim
to therapeutic virtue, every drug with any
reputation as a stimulant or tonic has at one
time or another been invoked for the pur-
pose — quinin, iron, the bitter stomachics,
strychnin, nitroglycerin, alcohol, the glycer-

ophosphates, — and in many instances these
pharmaceutics succeed; but they are neither
specific nor infallible, and when they fail
they only increase the overload of the or-
ganism. When they succeed it is by impart-
ing to the overwhelmed or overstrained
nerve centers the needed impulse to send
them again about their functional duties.
This impulse, when derived from drugs, is
a substitute for normal or natural stimula-
tion, whereas substitutes are never ideal,
and seldom satisfactory. They are all ham-
pered by reflex and reactionary effects that
are neither designed nor desirable. As be-
tween inertia and a fresh impulse they are
no doubt often the lesser of two evils; but
they are always artificial and never physi-
ological prods, therefore they lack both nat-
uralness and permanency. Measured by the
primary source of all natural stimulations —
nutrition^ none of these means is strictly
legitimate, logical or natural, since all are
in no sense either food, nutrition or pabu-
lum, ready to be converted into either fuel,
force or tissue.

Second to nutrition certain forces and in-
fluences may be properly termed natural,
since they induce, promote and co-operate
with functional activities. Among these may
be mentioned massage in any form, gymnas-
tic movements, hydrotherapy, magnetism,

electricity and vibration* In fact, while food
is Absolutely indispensable to all vital mani-
festations, without the auxiliary aid of some
one or more of these forces or agencies, it
may be said to be a passive influence, since
without co-operative conditions it remains
inutile and unavailable.

Gymnastic movements have been made
much of, and are decidedly helpful in many
cases, without being thoroughly competent
in any. They too, are often unavailable.
Hydrotherapy has a wide sphere, and is
sometimes all-sufficient in itself; but it, too,
requires conditions that are often inconven-
ient or impossible. Electricity, pre-eminent-
ly efficient and available, when intelligently
exhibited in proper cases, is often contrain-
dicated, for reasons that it is not necessary
to specify. Manual massage is one method
of exciting vibration. It is necessarily dif-
fuse in its form of application, and induces
vibratory responses which are more or less
incomplete because slow in rate and lacking
in rhythm.

In mechanical vibration we have brpught
into use a modality that does no violence to
natural laws, and that involves no untoward re-
actions, unless through the indiscretion of
careless or overzealous operators, who make
injudicious, too prolonged or too strenuous
applications.

PLATE I.

Fii^ L Ball Appliwitnr ur Vibmttidt?.

Fig- 2. Lurae Ccincure Disk Vibratnde.

Fir. a ^aU Fbit Diflk ViLrutudc.

Fig- 4. l^iTTed Arm mnd Wrist Vibrntndc

PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY.

Physiology and Pathology may be said to
be twin processes, having their origin in the
same root. One represents normal, sym-
metric and euphonius functions; the other is
abnormal, distorted and discordant functions
— rhythm and discord, eucrasia and dyscra-
sia.

Laws, rules and deductions applicable to
normal tissues and organs are either directly
or reversibly applicable to morbid tissues and
organs.

Crediting only the barest and best authen-
ticated data thus far brought to light, neither
the youngest graduate nor the oldest prac-
titioner need have any difficulty in applying
the principle to a multitude of physiologic
sins of omission or commission, and to a
host of pathologic accidents, the myriad
names of which need not be recited.

When the circulation and temperature of
an organ or tissue is at or near a standard
which has been determined from observing
and comparing a large number of healthy in-
dividuals, its functions are said to be physi-
ologically performed. When the circulation
is disturbed in either fulness or rhythm, and
the temperature deviates materially from the
established standards the accelerated, arhyth-
mic, retarded or disturbed functions are said
to be in a pathologic condition.

To increase the temperature of a tissue or
living body indicates that its corpuscles or
ions have been stimulated to an increased
and hypernormal velocity or momentum, in
their incessant bombardment of each other.
When this acceleration is pushed beyond a
certain limit the physical appearance of the
tissue, organ or body becomes wholly
changed, and we call the change decomposi-
tion.

Controlling the temperature of an organ-
ism or tissue regulates all its functions, and
together with its nutrition controls all the
rhythmic, metabolic and catabolic processes
connected with it. Moreover, controlling the
circulation is equivalent to controlling the
temperature.

It is evident that the keynote to those
physiologic stimulations which produce path-
ologic changes and correct pathologic condi-
tions is the control of the circulation. How
is this control effected? The histologists
have shown that the arteries and arterioles
are provided with a muscular coating which
can be acted upon in the same manner as
other muscular structures, namely, by stim-
ulating agencies and applications, prominent
among which may now be classed rhythmic
motion, or mechano-vital vibration. Even in
case of the capillary vessels their walls are
composed of susceptible endothelial plates.

Going deeper, the effects of mechano-vital
vibration on muscular structures is equally
marked. After being subjected to properly
adapted vibratory applications soft and flabby
muscles become decidedly firmer and more
elastic. The effects of a single vibratory
application or treatment are usually tran-
sient, but after a series of treatments the
toning-up effects will persist, for the reason
that the imparted impulse increases the flow
of arterial blood to the parts, and as a con-
sequence they are better nourished.

If no other results were secured these
would be considered satisfactory; but in ad-
dition the patient will soon begin to realize
that he is losing his customary and chronic
sense of "tiredness," which is such a promi-
nent symptom in neurasthenia and other
nervous ailments. Even after the first treat-
ment, if it be administered with discretion
and not overdone, he will realize a sense of
general restfulness to which he has long been
a stranger, and which will become more and
more pronounced and permanent as the treat-
ment proceeds.

In view of the impetus imparted to the*
circulation and through this to the nutritive
processes of the local parts, as well as to the
entire organism, these results are legitimate
clinical realizations, and not merely hypo-
thetical theories.

By means of mechano-vital vibration hy-
pertrophies may be definitely reduced and
disintegrated, and the various kinds of be-
nign tumors decomposed or discussed, after
which, through stimulation of the various
emunctories, and especially of the lymphatics
in the vicinity, the resulting debris from the
dissociated and degenerate tissues will be
rapidly eliminated.

Not everything that is called vibration will
produce these desired effects, since motion
may be rhythmical without being rapid, and
a certain degree of rapidity is essential to
insure the proper vital response. Thus, the
penetration of vibratory influences depends
chiefly upon the factor of rapidity or veloc-
ity. This may vary all the way from the slow
movements of the manual masseur to the
incomputable velocity of the high frequency
electrical currents. The general law is that
the higher the tension of the vibratory im-
pulse the more penetrating, and under proper
modification, also more soothing or sedative
the effects.

From high tension mechanical vibrations
three distinct effects may be confidently anti-
cipated: (a) control of the blood pressure
and circulation; (b) dispersion of local and
visceral congestions; and, (c) marked in-
crease of the secretions.

To these direct effects are to be added a
distinct and important series of indirect and
reflex influences which can be availed of and
utilized beneficially, in a variety of conditions
in which direct stimulation is either infeas-
ible, ineffective, or undesirable.

All the results thus briefly referred to may
be classed as physiologic, since they are
merely enhancement or acceleration of nor-
mal processes. It is, moreover, quite evi-
dent that they can be readily transmuted
into therapeutic measures and achievements.
They are all the more valuable from the fact
that they do no violence to Nature's meth-
ods, but are neither more nor less than ex-
aggerations of her processes.

PHYSIOLOGIC BASIS.

While physiologists do not yet claim to
explain all the processes and metabolic
changes that take place in nerve structures
certain basic facts have been demonstrated,
and in this connection it will be an instruc-
tive reminder to the practitioner who has
not kept in constant touch with the later de-
velopments in physiology to cite from stand-
ard works a condensed resume of the known
laws of nerve life, action and influence, on
which this practically new system of

rhythmic, mechano-vital stimulation is based:

1. Physiologic or normal stimulus applied
to nerves generates nerve-motion, which
travels in either a centrifugal or efferent di-
rection from the central system.

2. The results of this nerve-impulsion may
be either motion, the inhibition of motion, or
secretion.

3. When an impulse reaches the central or-
gans it excites sensation or perception, is
transferred to the motor areas, or it is con-
ducted in a centrifugal direction and consti-
tutes what is known as reflex stimulation.

4. Mechanical stimulation when applied
with sufficient rapidity produces a change in
the form of nerve particles.

5. Stimulated sensory nerves respond with
sensation, which may be increased to pain;
stimulated motor nerves with muscular mo-
tion.

6. A light blow upon the radial nerve of the
forearm, or upon the axillary nerves causes
the muscles supplied by these nerves to con-
tract.

7. Mechanical stimulation of a nerve does
not cause it to become acid as do other forms
of stimulation.

8. If a mechanical stimulus be applied to a
nerve very gradually it will render the nerve
inexcitable, without its manifesting any signs
of being stimulated.

9. Pressure on a nerve, if gradually in-
creased in intensity, first increases and then
diminishes its excitability.

10. Pressure on a mixed nerve abolishes
reflex conduction sooner than it does motor
conduction.

11. Chemical stimuli applied to nerve struc-
tures firjt increase and then decrease or par-
alyze their excitability.

12. If by mechanical stimulation the axial
cylinder of a nerve be interrupted, impulse-
waves across the inhibited part are inter-
rupted.

13. A nerve may be completely paralyzed
by a violent shock.

14. Separating" a nerve from its nutritive
or trophic center destroys its excitability, and
in warm-blooded animals it soon undergoes
fatty degeneration.

15. If the sensory fibers of a root of a
spinal nerve be divided at a point between
the ganglion and the spinal cord its peri-
pheral fibers do not degenerate, since the
ganglion is their nutritive center. But the
fiber-ends connected with the cord degener-
ate.

16. Anterior and posterior nerve-roots are
controlled by different centers.

17. The regeneration of a nerve is always
accomplished through its nutritive or trophic
center, and as long as a nerve is connected

with its trophic center, and is not wholly de-
stroyed, it is capable of being regenerated.

18. When a nerve is either dead or per-
manently severed from its trophic center it
can not be recovered.

19. Although the exact nature of trophic
influence is still largely a matter of study and
speculation, the practical fact that the trophic
centers control heat production and accom-
plish the nutrition of all the various organs
and tissues, chiefly if not wholly by control-
ling the blood-supply of the parts, has been
satisfactorily established.

20. If a nerve-center or conducting nerve-
fiber becomes deranged or lags in its function
the organ or part with which it is connected
soon degenerates, and this degeneration con-
stitutes disease.

21. Regardless of the distinctive names
that may be applied to them, all forms of tis-
sue-degeneration are essentially of nervous
origin.

22. It is found that the mechanical work
executed by an excited muscle as the result of
mechanical stimulation is one hundred times
greater than the energy expended by the me-
chanical stimulant.

It is easy to recognize the bearing of these
undisputed and authoritatively established
facts in physiology and neurology, and it is

impossible to deny that they provide a broad
basis on which to erect a therapeutic system,
with rhythmic, mechano-vital vibration as its
rational foundation.

HOW VIBRATION PRODUCES ITS RE-
SULTS.

As far back as 1876 Mosengeul announced
that local mechanical vibration could be made
to act upon a region, organ or tissue in the
same manner as does aspiration, and also to
practically substitute and imitate the work
of a force pump. In 1894 M. Colombo re-
ported, in Memoires de la Societie de Biolo-
gic, that he had experimented extensively
with vibration, using dogs as his subjects.
He found that by applying rapid mechanical
vibration directly to the various organs,
glands and nerve trunks, he could :

1. Materially increase the evolution and
flow of the gastric secretions, without in the
least interfering with their normal composi-
tion or chemical constituents;

2. Promote the secretion of bile;

3. Very decidedly increase the flow of
saliva ;

4. Cause active diuresis, with marked in-
crease of its solid constituents and epithelial
waste ;

5. Increase the production of both sperm
and spermatozoa;

6. Very perceptibly stimulate the cutane-
ous functions.

WHAT IS STIMULATION?

This term is much used and much abused.
Considerable vagueness prevails concerning
its physiologic signification. In the popular
mind, and even in many professional minds,
it has direct reference to the use of either
exciting drugs or some form of alcohol.
Very many people, who ought to be taught
better, consider stimulation as strictly an ar-
tificial effect, and not as it really is, a physi-
ologic function. Very reputable scientists, and
many medical writers quote the word in this
very careless and inaccurate manner. Some-
times it is used in the sense of irritation, and
only rarely as a synonym of nutrition, but
quite commonly with various shades of com-
promise and modification between these two.
The dictionaries themselves supply a rather
unsatisfactory clue to the biologic meaning
of the word. The Latin stimiilatio is defined
as a pricking, incitement; and stimulare, the
verb, means to prick, spur, goad, incite, etc.
The strictly medical dictionaries are equally
lame and unsatisfactory. In considering the

subject of mechanotherapy it is very essential
to clearly define all terms which are so com-
monly used in a vague inexact or careless
manner. Hence, this linguistic but necessary
digression.

In a biologic sense, to stimulate does not
mean to "urge on to increased action," but
stands for the initiation and sustentation of
every normal physiologic function. A mod-
ern German author defines it as "the cause
of that form of motion of matter which is
designated as life, or any change of the inter-
nal and external conditions under which the
protoplasm lives."

As being closely allied to stimulation, reac-
tion is defined by the same author as, "all
forms of performance of work, displacement
of atoms or molecules (or processes of a
physico-chemical nature), with which the pro-
toplasm responds to every change in the
processes of causation; i. e., on the internal
and external conditions of life effecting the
organism." He adds that, "this reaction ex-
ists even when the stimulation is ever so
small; only it is not always demonstrable by
the means at our disposal, since it is a ques-
tion of infinitesimal alterations of the molec-
ular mechanism."

In this sense, stimulation is seen to have
a far more fundamental and comprehensive
significance than is ascribed to it in any of

the lexicons. It is a synonym of causation,
being, existence. With its cognate process or
term, reaction, it constitutes the ebb and flow
of organic life. Together they stand for the
origin and essence of all vital and organic re-
sults, for the initiation of vital energy, and
the transformation of energ^y into either
work, motion, or heat, or into all these.

Popularly and colloquially, as well as pro^
fessionally, especially in a clinical sense, the
word is currently used in quite different sig-
nifications. The commonest use of it is as
stated, in connection with the administration
of alcoholics. This is too common to call
for anything further than mere mention. It
is to this use of the word that the diction-
aries have chiefly and unwarrantedly restrict
ed themselves. Instead of being advanced as
the principal or predominating sense of the
word, it should simply be recogjnized as the
most limited and superficial one.

Another popular, somewhat less superficial,
and more legitimate use of the word is in
connection with the electric current. The
various forms of galvanic, faradic, static and
high frequency currents are utilized to stim-
ulate nerves, muscles, glands and other struc-
tures of the body. This form of stimulation
more nearly resembles normal or fundamen-
tal stimulation, as above defined. It may

without impropriety be called supernormal
stimulation.

To recapitulate, in a strictly legitimate and
accurate sense, stimuli are always forms of
energy. Heat, light, force, motion, elec-
tricity, nutrition, — these may be cited as nor-
mal or fundamental stimuli. Alcoholics must,
on the other hand, be classed as excitants,
but not as originators of energy. The other
forms that may be mentioned are chemical
stimuli and mechanical stimuli. The former
may be simply irritant, or may be nutrient,
in which case they belong with the foods.
The latter, being manifestations of force, be-
long with the legitimate or energy series.

Bearing in mind the foregoing definitions
of stimulation, we have in mechano-vital vi-
bration a true physiologic stimulant. It is
capable, in discreet hands, of seconding Na-
ture's methods and synergizing all the vital
functions. But it must not be forgotten that
physiologic stimulation itself may be exces-
sive, in which case it becomes an irritant,
and eventually a depressant.

NOMENCLATURE.

The nomenclature of science is at present,
always has been, and necessarily will always
continue to be in a condition of constant
transition. This causes, especially in medical

literature, more or less confusion of terms.
Many professional disputes and misunder-
standings arise from this very common dis-
agreement in the matter of definitions.

Like the popular misuse of the word stim-
ulation, vibration is indiscriminately used by
some writers to cover and include all forms
of mechanical processes that consist of rap-
idly repeated motion, regardless of its char-
acter or direction. The lexicographers them-
selves permit, if they do not authoritatively
teach, this use of the word. It is derived di-
rectly from the Latin, Vibrare, which is de-
fined, "to set in tremulous motion, to swing;
to oscillate; move one way and the other;
play to and fro; to move in any kind of sta-
tionary motion under forces of restitution,
commonly with a rapid motion; to produce a
vibratory or resonant effect; thrill; quiver,**
etc., etc. Vibration is further defined as "an
oscillating reciprocating, or any kind of sta-
tionary motion made by a body, as a pen-
dulum, musical cord, elastic plate or mass of
air, when forced from the figure, position or
volume of equilibrium, under the influence
of the forces of restitution." The term oscil-
lation is, however, more commonly used to
describe the motion of a body which is being
acted upon as a whole by the force of gravity,
such as a pendulum ; while Vibration is com-
monly, and ought to be, limited to a motion

with rapid reciprocations, interruptions or ev-
olutions. In medical literature the word is
frequently synonymous with the word fre-
mitus, the original meaning of which is, ''a
dull, roaring, humming, murmuring sound,"
a description especially applicable to the del-
icate rhythmic impulses imparted to the chest
walls by the emission of vocal sounds.

It would clear up the confusion of terms if
vibratory motion, therapeutically considered,
v^ere divided into three distinct varieties,
namely; vibration proper, percussion, and
oscillation. Some writers add gyration, but
this seems rather a modification of oscilla-
tion, the difference being a change in the
direction cf the motion. A legitimate sub-
division may be made by combining any two
of these in the same effort, as, vibration and
percussion, oscillation and percussion, etc.
Technically and accurately speaking, both
percussion and oscillation should be classed,
not as vibration itself, but as inciters of vi-
bration within the tissues.

A peculiar feature relating to the difference
in the stroke-effects of the different vibrators
iiJ the market has not yet been mentioned by
any author with whom I am familiar. Those
instruments which afford only the direct per-
cussion stroke give but one direction to the
imparted impulse, viz., a perpendicular and
penetrative one. Instruments, on the other

hand, which combine both percussion and
oscillation possess the additional facility of
imparting a lateral and labile movement to
the impulses transmitted. Whoever will take
the pains to study this lateral movement will
note that it is always in one and the same
direction, which can be made either afferent
or efferent. The direction of this impulse-
movement can be tested and verified by oper-
ating a ball vibratode over a pile of loose
sheets of paper. Under firm pressure the
sheets will be seen to "creep" from under
the vibratode, each sheet at a different rate
of speed, but all in the same direction. It at
once becomes apparent that it is not a matter
of indifference whether the impulse imparted
to the tissues is efferent or afferent. The ef-
ferent movement tends to direct the circula-
tion and the nerve forces from the centers
toward the extremities, while the afferent di-
rection has an opposite effect.

Dr. Farmer, of this city, first called the
writer's attention to this hitherto overlooked
point.

RATIONALE OF VIBRATORY THERA-
PEUTICS.

Our latest theories concerning matter seem
to establish the fact that the heat of the body
is caused by and dependent upon the friction

of molecules, or their infinitesimal subdivision
into ions moving^ among themselves. That
mechano-vital vibration is capable of accel-
erating this intermolecular or intercorpuscu-
lar motion is positively proved by the fact
that it can be applied so as to increase the
temperature of a part. On the other hand
it can be modified so s^s to cause a decrease
in the temperature of a locality, org^n, or
part, and on occasion, of the entire system.
If the former effect be established the latter
is no more than a logical sequence.

It has been determined that one of the
lowest rates of ethereal vibration of which we
take cognizance generates heat. These undu-
lations are termed thermal waves. They
warm the earth and make organic life pos-
sible. A higher rate of vibration, as already
noted, results in photogenic waves, and these
produce — ^light.

MASSAGE CONTRASTED.

Massage has been before the profession for
some years, and has been developed into a
very useful and respectable art. It has ap-
propriated or coined several descriptive terms
not used in any other connection, viz., cf-
fleurage, petrissage, tapotement, etc. But
while massage proper can be utilized to ex-
cite or induce vital vibrations, on the part of

an organism or tissue, it is not in itself a form
of vibration. To speak of the two in the same
connection is to be guilty of a confusion of
terms that should be carefully avoided.

Among other things, massage is made to
take the place of proper and normal physical
exercise. Muscles may be kneaded, pinched
and squeezed into a more supple and respon-
sive condition, the cutaneous circulation
quickened or equalized, and the superficial
lymphatics stimulated to greater activity.
But the most expert masseur does not ordi-
narily undertake to aflfcct the deep-seated
nerve-trunks, the spinal ganglia, and only
slightly and superficially the splanchnics and
sympathetic system of nerves, or the pro-
founder glands and absorbents.

Mechano-vital vibration, in its renascent
form, is but a few years old, is yet without a
literature, and has before it a field to which
massage can never aspire. Its distinguishing
feature consists in its power to profoundly
affect and control, stimulate or inhibit any
organic function, gland or viscus, as well as
the nerve and blood supply of any part of
the organism, through its nerve control or
trophic centers.

Massage differs from Vibration in the
method of its application. While the former
is usually applied at or near the seat of the
pain or local disturbance, with a view to pal-

Hating or dispersing it, the latter is not only
applied locally but accomplishes many of its
most brilliant results reflexly. Furthermore,
the intelligent vibrationist, in all serious
cases, seeks out the nerve control or trophic
center radiating to the part, and either calms,
stimulates or inhibits it, according to the ef-
fect desired. Some manufacturers of vibra-
tory apparatus persist in calling their instru-
ments machines for producing "vibra-mas-
sage." If their machines are no more than
mechanical masseurs they are not worthy of
being called vibrators. An apparatus that
merely, more or less rapidly rubs the patient,
in one or more directions, may be aptly
termed a "vibra-massage" machine.

Massage has a definitely limited field, and
has realized its limitations.

Mechanical or mechano-vital vibration has
before it an unlimited field, and is yet in its
swaddling clothes.

Massage may be made available for certain
results, not necessarily all superficial, but it
should never be confounded with mechanical
vibration or mechano-vital vibratory impulse.
It is only too evident that those who speak of
vibration as a form of massage have no con-
ception of the nature and possibilities of the
former.

Whatever is accomplished by manual mas-
sage may be called the result of induced

and diffused vital vibrations. In comparing
Massage with Mechano-vital Vibration the
former is a precursor, a town-crier heralding
the advent of the coming prince; or it is the
slow-going mail coach ; while the latter is the
"twentieth century limited," and wireless
transmitter. One consumes a painstaking
hour to accomplish much less profound re-
sults than are easily eflfected by the other in
a short five or ten minutes. To discuss the
two in the same breath is a waste of words.

TROPHIC CENTERS.

Since all nerve impulses unquestionably
consist of vibrations, it logically and physio-
logically follows that a disordered nerve is
one whose vibratory rhythm has been inter-
rupted or thrown into discord. Admitting
that trophic centers directly and constantly
preside, each over its own particular organ
or tissue, gland, muscle, nerve, viscus, blood-
vessel, or system of vessels, and that when it
is compressed, injured or exhausted it causes
the organ or tissue to flag in its functions,
and also that, reflexly, any injured, diseased
or under-nourished organ or tissue depresses
or reflexly demoralizes the nerve center with
which it is anatomically associated, it is an
equally logical and physiological inference

that any force, process, manipulation or in-
fluence that will correct the structural asym-
metry, slight though it may be, and at the
same time restore the impulse-rhythm of the
involved nerve mechanism, will thereby prove
itself a perfectly natural, legitimate and fair-
ly ideal therapeutic measure.

To this end, as already noted, all the prom-
ising or possible resources of art and nature
have been tentatively invoked, — drugs, man-
ual manipulation, exercise, the movement
cure, gymnastics, galvanism and faradism,
the violet ray and high frequency currents;
and all of these, together with various psychic
influences, have been accredited with a great-
er or less degree of therapeutic virtue; but
none of them is capable of affording such
radical and satisfactory results as have been
accomplished by mechano-vital vibration.

The principle itself is not new, but the
method of utilizing it has been but recently
made conveniently and efficiently available.
A careful investigation of it, including the
severest clinical tests, will convince the in-
quirer that it is at once ingenious, strictly
legitimate, and therapeutically comprehen-
sive.

DIAGNOSTIC SUGGESTIONS.

Modern habits of living, with social con-
straints and conventionalities that have been
either self-imposed or difficult to escape,
have combined to induce serious changes in
the functional tonus, if not in the anatomical
integrity of the entire nervous system of the
human animal. In this country in particu-
lar a neurotic dycrasia has become so com-
mon that some pathologists are inclined to
attribute it to inevitable transitional causes —
a stage in the evolutionary history of the
race.

In connection with the latest special study
of the pathology of the nervous system it has
been observed that in case of disordered
nerve-ganglia, or of diseased organs or areas
supplied by the same, the temporary applica-
tion of a labile, high-tension electrical cur-
rent along the spine and over the site of the
various ganglionic centers will be followed
by a distinct and very perceptible hyperemia
of those centers whose corresponding organs
are aflfected, or which are themselves dor-
mant or disordered. Centers or ganglia not
thus associated or affected do not show this
response. For the purpose of this special
diagnostic symptom the ordinary faradic ma-
chine is of no avail, its current being of too
low tension. It requires a high-frequency
current, such as may be derived from a static

machine, or from a suitable coil, provided
with an adequate interrupter, to afford satis-
factory results. Again, certain areas of the
body respond to similar tests, showing a dis-
tinct flush, after their associated spinal cen-
ters have been subjected to mechano-vital
vibration. In further illustration of this point
see plates in the appended "Dictionary of
Diseases."

In the absence of a suitable current, or on
account of objection to the application, on
the part of an oversensitive patient, these
areas may be detected by digital pressure,
and will be found to be hyperesthetic, if not
distinctly painful to the touch. In utilizing
the static current its efficiency is enhanced if
the patient be insulated and one pole of the
machine grounded, in which case a glass
vacuum electrode having a rather broad sur-
face should be used.

Having located the hypersensitive areas, it
is not difficult for a reasonably expert anato-
mist to trace the involved organ or tissue.

Not content with the overrated tempera-
ture-and-test-meal method of diagnosis, if we
push the investigation of functional distur-
bances and organic involvement we will fre-
quently discover fundamental causes in the
form of atrophied or contracted muscles, ab-
sorbed cartilages, and sometimes slight or
serious, but unsuspected distortions and dis-

placements of articulations and osseus struc-
tures. These slight vertebral and other devi-
ations — the stock in trade of the disciples of
Osteopathy — are actually present in a large
number of cases in which they have escaped
the notice of even expert diagnosticians, sim-
ply because the latter have not looked for
them. They have resulted from muscular
contractures, faulty habits as to bodily posi-
tions or attitudes, imperfect nutrition of the
parts, impeded circulation, caused by pres-
sure from the clothing worn, or otherwise,
or from local abscesses, or disease. Other
bones than those of the spinal column, espe-
cially the ribs, scapulae and pelvic bones are
quite subject to asymmetric deviations, which
sometimes cause pressure upon nerve ganglia
or their radiating branches, and thus serious-
ly interfere with some one or more of the
vital functions.

AS A SOURCE OF IMMUNITY.

A phase of vibratory therapeutics which
has as yet received scant attention, deserves
to be mentioned. It relates to the inaugura-
tion and cultivation of immunity.

With all the long search for antiseptics and
antitoxins, and notwithstanding the much
faith formerly and still indulged in as to their

efficiency, it is beginning to be realized that
there are a thousand helpful germs to one
that is hurtful; and that even the inimical,,
'^pathogenic" or malignant germs fail to find
a foothold in the human organism, or to do
any damage, until the subject has fallen from
physiologic grace, or, in military terms, has
been forced to withdraw or surrender his
picket lines of defence. This means that in
any rational practice — continuing the martial
metaphor — ^the skirmish line must be kept
constantly reenforced from the main body of
the army. Dropping the metaphor, this is in
eflfect saying that when the vital forces —
essentially nerve forces — are maintained at
their, normal standard, and the organism is
kept constantly supplied with the necessary
pabulum for its growth, maintenance and
force-expenditure, its lubrication and repair,
it is practically immune to attack or infection
of any kind and from any source.

The primary factors are headed by the gen-
eral one of heredity, and this means bodily
construction, structural integrity and tem-
perament. Next to this is environment,
which may be local, incidental and transient,
or it may be, according to circumstances, in-
evitable and permanent. These must always
be considered, and often combated, because
they exist under circumstances which can
not be radically changed.

With these fundamentals every study of
the, individual has always and invariably to
reckon. If they be primarily and unchange-
ably unpropitious the vital battle is to this
extent complicated and made more strenuous.

Thus, human development, when studied
from the standpoint of individuals is more or
le^s, in each case, hampered by organic, func-
tional and temperamental divergencies and
peculiarities. Ignoring mental traits, which
are subject to the same discrepancies, there
are anatomic peculiarities. Certain sets of
muscles are well developed in one and scarce-
ly more than rudimentary in another. One
man's nerves are, popularly speaking, all on
the surface, while another's are so innately
stolid as to be seldom in evidence. The for-
mer wears his heart on his sleeve, and tosses
on sleepless pillows; the latter takes no
thought of cankering care, is not hypersensi-
tive, and loses no sleep on account of friend
or foe. The stock of vitality with which each
is endowed varies in quality as well as quan-
tity, and both these terms vary in proportion
to existing structural, physiologic and physi-
cal diflferences.

Rosenbach calls this factor predisposition,
and then defines predisposition as the faculty
of the individual to receive kinetic and innate
energy in consequence of definite stimula-
tions, and to convert it into work, tangi-

hie results, — vital accomplishment. The re-
alized results in case of two different indi-
vidual organisms is far from uniform, and
this gives occasion for the attempted arrange-
ment of tables of variants; but these can
probably never be reduced to mathematical
accuracy. It is the rate, rhythm and regular-
ity of metabolism that determine the com-
parative degree of the condition called health,
and that rate, rhythm and regularity depend
upon the completeness of organic develop-
ment and the generation and transmission of
normal or competent impulses to the various
structures involved.

Prof. Loeb, whose experiments seem to
warrant his conclusions, is of the opinion that
when we thoroughly master the question of
these variants, as they relate to the human
organism, we shall be able to confer defi-
nite immunity from all ordinary diseases
upon all who will conform to the necessary
conditions. This will virtually reduce the
causes of death to old age and accident The
point he has most clearly demonstrated is
that very slight causes are sufficient, if per-
sistently repeated or kept active, to bring
about almost incredible results, in the matter
of development, function and activity. As if
reciprocally. Nature has ordained that equal-
ly slight changes suffice to change disordered
into rhythmic, and morbid into normal activ-

ities, thereby overcoming diseased action and
reestablishing health. Metabolism is the
rather modern name for all the processes as-
sociated toward this result, which processes
include all that is described under the head
of digestion, absorption, assimilation, circula-
tion, secretion, elimination and excretion, —
sometimes more tersely described as anabo-
lism and catabolism, constructive and de-
structive metamorphosis. The climax of
metabolism is reached at the parting of the
ways between growth and decay, energy con-
structive and energy destructive. It all re-
solves itself into a question of gain and loss,
building and tearing down, accepting and re-
jecting, ingestion and ejection; since all that
enters must soon or later, in one form or an-
other find exit.

It is comparatively easy to provide the re-
quired materials, and it is customary, in a
perfunctory way, to accredit the stomach with
being the laboratory in which all vital force
is generated. In a general sense this may
be admitted; but without direct and constant
innervation the stomach would be no better
than a flexible leather pouch, a convenient
receiving vault for dietetic ensilage, which
would decompose but not digest. Back of
all vital action is this mysterious initiative
of all living manifestations, of all sentient
being, of all thought, and of every form of
'c process.

STIMULATION AND ELIMINATION.

The four excretory organs, channels, sew-
ers or outlets through which refuse and or-
ganic ashes are washed out of the system, are
the intestines, kidneys, lungs and skin. The
liver and spleen constitute the systemic re-
finery, a kind of joint organic laboratory in
which secretions and circulating fluids re-
ceive some necessary finishing touches.

A stimulant is any agent that temporarily
increases the functional activity of any organ
or tissue, either by enhancing its innerva-
tion, or by overcoming any existing impedi-
ments or obstructions to its activity. On this
basis stimulants may be divided into three
general classes:

1. Agents or influences that increase the
irritability of nerve centers, or the conductiv-
ity of nerve trunks and nerve fibers.

2. Agents that promote the conversion of
potential into kinetic energy, by increasing
the activity of a function, through inciting
either a more rapid or a more powerful
transformation of its energy.

3. Agents or influences which act by re-
straining or depressing such nerve centers as
possess an inhibitory power over any given
function, thus removing the checks to its per-
fect freedom.

Mechano-vital vibration can be made to
perform the function of a physiologic stimu-

lant to the quartet of organs already men-
tioned and happily named by some author as
the "big four" of elimination, to the refining
laboratory the liver, seconded by the spleen,
and as an apt exemplar in each of the varie-
ties of stimulating agents described.

When the nerve centers are in normal con-
dition some of these reflex responses and re-
actions either over the ganglia or at the
associated areas, can be secured by means of
a few light taps of the percussion hammer,
applied at the points indicated. When this
normal condition has been changed to one of
disorder, debility or depression, with lessen-
ed sensibility and conductivity as the leading
symptom, it requires a succession of blows
and a frequency of repetition varying all the
way from a few hundred to many thousands
per minute to arouse a proper response.

HOW MECHANICAL VIBRATION AIDS
ELIMINATION.

Taking these demonstrated facts into
account it is easy to understand how and why
mechano-vital vibration can be made a pow-
erful aid to elimination. Superficially it
arouses a dormant, relaxed or debilitated skin
to effective activity, and maintains it in that
vigorous condition. Applied to the respira-

tory centers it increases the intake of oxygen
by deepening and invigorating the inspiratory
effort. Directed to the splanchnics and the
centers associated with the digestive func-
tion, and directly over the course of the col-
on, it promotes peristalsis, stimulates intesti-
nal absorption and the prompt elimination
of waste and refuse matter. Applied to the
control centers of the kidneys it prompts
these organs to greater activity, relieves them
of congestion, and can be so manipulated as
to cause relaxation of the ureters, thus favor-
ing rapid exit of kidney waste that would
otherwise be long enough retained to become
a serious source of irritation, congestion and
chronic inflammation.

Lastly, vibratory stimulation is competent
to aid elimination in a general way, by im-
parting to all the functions a fresh impulse
of physiologic energy, which as already stat-
ed, under intelligent management entails no
undesirable reactions.

MECHANO-VITAL VIBRATION vs.
DRUGS.

In the field of modern therapeutics it is be-
coming quite apparent, even to the most con-
servative, that routine treatment of diseases
is steadily and everywhere losing caste. Pills,

plasters and potions are no longer looked
upon as inevitable and indispensable, or a3
other than palliative, and at most indirectly
curative. The medical schools, cults and
schisms are every year broadening their ten-
ets, breaking down prejudices, growing toler-
ant, and approaching each other. Exclusive-
ness and sect trademarks are going out of
fashion. The rational test of the practitioner
of today is attainments rather than preten-
sions. The Examining Boards and even the
public are beginning to ask, "What do you
know?'' instead of, "Who signed your diplo-
ma?" The dogmatic inculcations of the past
are coming to be looked upon as narrow as-
sumptions which are neither final nor funda-
mental, as was so implicitly taught and be-
lieved a generation or two ago. In those days
Nature was premeditately ignored, and the
foremost practitioners either carelessly neg-
lected or arrogantly disdained their most
rational allies.

This is by no means an explosion of thera-
peutic nihilism. Drugs have an important
sphere, but it is becoming apparent that this
sphere has its definite limitations, and these
limitations are every year becoming better
known and more adequately appreciated. For
example, alleged "laws of cure" have almost
imperceptibly resolved themselveis into a
more or less open, though sometimes uncon-

f^^,

PLATE 11.

Fig. G. Small Soft Rubber Bell Applicator.

Fig. 7. Small Soft Rubber Bell Applicator with Flanged Mouth.

Fig. 8. Brush Applicator.

Fig. 9. Soft Rubber Brush for the Scalp and Sensitive Surfaces.

Fig. 10. Short Fhiid Applicator for Rectum, Vagina, etc.

scious, recognition of the one law of Nature,
which makes all the "discovered" and invent-
ed "laws" look cheap, inadequate and fairly
inane. Simplicity is usurping the place of
aforetime mystery. Mechanotherapy is one
of the fruits of this evolutionary, or revolu-
tionary movement, and Mechano-vital Vibra-
tion is one of the most rational and promising
of the newer mechanical agencies now being
invoked. As has recently been proved by
abundant and unquestioned clinical demon-
strations, this measure is capable of inducing
so many and such opposite physiologic ef-
fects tljat its advocates and devotees may be
excused for a liberal percentage of mistakes,
a reasonable degree of overassurance, and
some, possibly unwarranted, expectancy.
There are no curealls, and realizing this, the
former faith in miracles is evolving into a
faith in science.

PHYSIOLOGIC CONFIRMATION.

The following strictly physiologic results
may be confidently expected to follow the
intelligent application of mechano-vital vibra-
tion:

(1) The acceleration of a languid and
slowing of an excited pulse; hence improved
local and general circulation.

(2) The temporary congestion of a part,
if desired^ as a result of calling to it an ab-
normal supply of blood.

(3) Temporary depletion of a part, at
will, by diminishing the circulation through
it.

(4) Enhanced nutrition of a part through
increasing its circulation.

(5) Increased elimination through the
skin and other emunctories, by stimulating
the superficial lymphatics and the deeper
seated eliminating organs, through direct
vibratory applications, or by stimulating the
spinal nerves that actuate and control them.

(6) Enhanced muscular tone.

(7) Increased action on the part of all
the secretory organs and tissues, — liyer, pan-
creas, spleen, alimentary mucous membrane,
and all glandular organs.

(8) Improved general metabolism, result-
ing from the foregoing increased activity of
all the vital functions.

(9) Discussion, dispersion and elimination
of hypertrophies, abnormal growths, exu-
dates and infiltrations.

(10) Relief from the results of suboxida-
tion within the tissues.

(11) Relaxation of contracted muscles.

(12) Immediate relief of many forms of
pain, whether peripheral or deep-seated.

(13) Dormant nerve centers aroused to
normal activity.

(14) Overactive nerve centers, in extreme
cases, inhibited and soothed to normal ten-
sion.

(15) Increased interstitial oxidation, and
therefore increased heat production.

Based on the foregoing, the therapeutic
possibilities of mechano-vital vibration may
now be more definitely and confidently
stated.

On the circulation it can be made to pro-
duce positive and apparently contradictory
results. In other vsrords, arterial tension can
be either increased or diminished, according
to the methods and intensity of applications,
and any given viscus or tissue can be made
hyperemic or relieved of hyperemia, at will.

Again, the tension or activity of any spe-
cial nerve center can be either increased or
diminished, and dormant nerves, whether af-
ferent or efferent, can be aroused and restor-
ed to normal function. Local congestion can
be both induced and dispersed. Hyperesthet-
ic nerves and areas of hyperesthesia can be
pleasantly and quickly relieved, and all the
vital processes, metabolism, nutrition, assimi-
lation and elimination, markedly accelerated.

Relying on these effects, clinical results
abundantly corroborate the logical inference
that mechano-vital vibration can be made to

materially assist in reducing hypertrophies
and discussing nearly all forms of neoplasms
and morbid growths.

Since the Roentgen and ultra-violet rays
are simply immeasurably rapid forms of vi-
bratory motion, it is reasonable to infer that
their action is a result of this motion. Ac-
cording to Sajous, the philosophy of the ac-
tion of rapid vibratory impulses in destroying
morbid tissues in thus explained:

They cause a local heat accumulation and
congestion, which induces a rapid and exten-
sive immigration of nutrophile leucocytes, and
these, through their phagocytic and fibrogen-
ic properties, convert the degenerated cellu-
lar elements into benign products.

Mechanical vibration, in a lesser degree,
reaches the same results. It induces local
hyperemia, a local increase of temperature,
and presumably an influx of leucocytes and
phagcocytes; whence follows that process of
phagocytic digestion which is Nature's meth-
od for the removal of the various forms of
neoplasms including malignant growths.

It has long been known that manual manip-
ulation or masage, is a valuable auxiliary in
the treatment of these maladies, and it is easy
to understand that by increasing the depth,
force and frequency of the applied impulses,
by mechanical means, the salutary effects will
be proportionately increased.

Control of the circulation, and concurrent-
ly of local heat production, explains the proc-
ess and accounts for the results.

To go more into detail, superficial appli-
cations of mechano-vital vibration accelerate
the cutaneous circulation, and promote the
nutrition of the skin. Its secretions are
stimulated, so that under this influence a
previously harsh and dry skin becomes softer
and more supple.

The induced increase in the force of the
circulation, and the promotion of nutritive
and eliminatory processes naturally results in
a perceptible increase of the number of red
corpuscles and of hemoglobin.

Superficial applications also stimulate the
lymphatics and absorbents, the value of which
result, in all morbid conditions is self-sugges-
tive.

Mechano-vital vibratory stimulation of the
lymphatics and absorbents is of the utmost
value in connection with the use of the x-
ray, ultra-violet ray, and high-frequency cur-
rents, when treating maligfnant growths.
With this combination, no doubt some of the
reported failures in the use of x-ray could
have been made successful.

By deep applications the deep-seated nerve
ganglia can be reached, and profoundly af-
fected, and, as in case of superficial applica-
tions, the action of these ganglia may be

either soothed, stimulated or inhibited, ac-
cording to the length and intensity of the ap-
plications. In fact, as already set forth, one
of the most important fields of mechanical
vibration is in connection with these ganglia,
and with the recognized trophic centers of
the nervous system. Each of the spinal gang-
lia is a storage battery of vital electricity, and
each is credited with presiding over some
one, — sometimes conjointly over more than
one, — function or process. When the ganglia
radiating to, and in the main controlling any
area or organ is stimulated, that particular
organ or area responds. Of course, it is un-
derstood that many ganglia are closely in-
terrelated, and thus provide auxiliary power,
one for the other, in case of accident, or in-
terference.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION.

Omitting much that might be said con-
cerning trophic centers, heat centers, nutri-
tive centers, etc., a dormant or debilitated
ganglia may be stimulated, and often fully
restored to normal activity by an intelligent
application of mechano-vital vibration.

Coming at once to the illustration and
practical application of the treatment, the pa-
tellar reflex is an apt instance. It receives
its impulse and is controlled by the second

and third lumbar ganglia. This is merely an
illustrative example.

The brain may be reached and influenced
by applications made over several pairs of
ganglia, ranging from the second to the sev-
enth dorsal. The eyes through the third ccr*
vical, and, to some extent, through the vari-
ous centers, as low as the. fourth dorsal. Re-
cent cases of ptosis of the eyelid have been
promptly relieved by deep applications over
the seat of the third cervical. The external
ear is reached through the sixth cervical.
The middle ear may be influenced by appli-
cations made, from the second dorsal upward,
as well as by applications to the front and
sides of the neck.

In treating the throat, the applications are
to be made by suitable "vibratodes" behind
the rami of the inferior maxillary, or inter-
nally by means of fluid applicators. In ane-
mic conditions of the throat, these applica-
tions should be very light, so as to stimulate,
while in congestive conditions deeper pres-
sure will be more effective in disgorging the
blood vessels, and dispersing the congestion.
In acute and subacute pharyngitis and laryn-
gitis, as encountered in professional singers,
some very striking results can be obtained.
In these cases, vigorous stimulation of the
lymphatics of the neck and axillary region,
and also brisk stimulation of both the liver

and spleen, will add to the effectiveness and
permanency of the treatment.

The heart is reached through various cen-
ters, all the way from the third cervical to
the fourth dorsal. To affect the lungs, deep
vibration is to be applied to the third, fourth,
fifth and sixth dorsal centers. To relax an
obstructed pylorus, deep applications are to
be made over the fourth dorsal on each side
alternately, and to the solar plexus and pneu-
mogastrics.

The centers from the sixth to the ninth
dorsal, of the right side, influence the liver,
while the same pairs of the left control the
spleen. The eighth dorsal is associated with
the pancreas, to reach which the solar plexus
should also be treated. The latter, more or
less influences all the pelvic viscera.

Nausea, from the usual causes, can gen-
erally be relieved by vigorous but very tran-
sient vibration applied to the fourth dorsal
on the left side.

When the pelvic organs are diseased or
congested there will ordinarily be found one
or more hyperesthetic points along the spine,
over the fifth lumbar and the eighth dorsal,
more frequently than at other points. In
ovarian trouble, it will generally be found
that the fifth lumbar and twelfth dorsal are
more directly involved.

One general caution may be reiterated,
namely, that the amateur operator is almost
certain to overdo the treatment. As a rule
the applications must be very brief, varying
from five to twenty seconds at each point.
This is especially true when deep pressure
is being applied. For other examples see
plates ilktstrating related areas, etc.

APPLICABI^.ITY AND RESULTS.

It follows that whatever influence sends
two nerve impulses where one was formerly
sent is capable of accomplishing physiologic
and therapeutic wonders. And this is a feat
preeminently possible to mechano-vital vi-
bration. Applied to the pneumogastric
branch and gastric plexus supplying the
stomach it can be so adjusted as to greatly
enhance digestive energy. It does this in a
most natural and physiologic manner, sim-
ply by accelerating all the processes con-
cerned. Thus, increasing the circulation in
the organ, its temperature is slightly increas-
ed, the normal secretions are more abun-
dantly poured out, its muscular walls ren-
dered more firm and elastic, so that its churn-
ing and peristaltic movements are accelerated
and made efficient. Judiciously applied, it
accomplishes these results without encroach-
ing upon other normal functions, setting up

irritations, or in other words, without rob-
bing Peter to pay Paul. These may be term-
ed physiologic and mechanical effects, al-
though they are really more than this. There
is another effect which is chemical in nature,
and, as already stated, is too generally over-
looked; it is the increased demand for oxy-
gen, without which no vital process can be
either inaugurated or fully completed. The
increased liberation of CO* follows as a nat-
ural sequence, as does the elimination of
all other noxious by-products which are the
prolific and sole source of that modern bete
noire — autointoxication. Stimulating the
pneumogastric nerves increases respiratory
depth and vigor, and this, as is well known,
promotes the functional activity and tone of
all the organs.

Applied to secreting and excreting organs,
either directly or through their governing
centers, it contributes functional aid, without
entailing corresponding reaction and ultimate
depression and exhaustion. It relaxes con-
tracted and tones up relaxed and flabby mus-
cular walls, layers and structures; it pro-
motes lymphemia and lymphangiectasis ; it
can be made to both dilate and contract the
capillaries, and by this means is a valuable
aid in removing extravasations, infiltrations
and exudations, before they have become or-
ganized or solidified, and in breaking up ad-

hesions, even after they have become firm
and comparatively permanent. It restores to
normal the nutrition of any debilitated or un-
der-nourished organ, viscus, muscle or tis-
sue, and in general, promotes and accelerates
delayed or obstructed metabolism through-
out the system. Reflexly it induces many, of
these results, not by direct applications to the
parts themselves, but by stimulation of the
cerebro-spinal and sympathetic centers. Thus,
nerve tissue, made up of a combination of
neurons, axons and distal termini, may be
influenced, as already explained, by direct ap-
plications at or near its origin, at its termi-
nal tufts, or along its course.

The rationale of these results has already
been adverted to. It may be further explain-
ed by studying the effects of rapidly inter-
rupted wave or vibratory motion when ap-
plied to nerve tissue. The investigations of
Vas, Starr, Hodge, Mann and others prove
that under the influence of such applications
profound chemical and physiologic changes
are induced in the cells, cell nuclei and neu-
rons. Omitting any attempt at a technical
description of these changes in detail, for all
practical purposes it is sufficient to know that
cell and nerve nutrition are definitely and pro-
foundly affected. Thus mild stimulation,
that is, stimulation that is arrested short of
fatigue, increases the blood-supply of the

tissue acted upon, and as a consequence the
cells swell, clear up in the center, and absorb
nutrition. If stimulation be carried to the
stage of moderate fatigue, followed by prop-
er rest or relaxation, the tired nerve will re-
cuperate of itself, provided the circulation is
thoroughly maintained in condition to supply
adequate nutrition.

SOME CLINICAL PROOFS.

Clinical attestation of the truth of these
assertions is readily obtained. Thus, apply-
ing deep but momentary mechanical vibra-
tion to the eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and
twelfth dorsal ganglia produces temporary di-
lation of the aorta, which can be readily de-
tected, especially at the arch. Changing the
application to the seventh cervical instantly
reverses this effect. Lightly vibrating the
skin over the lower margin of the liver
causes the lower border of that organ to per-
ceptibly recede, showing that the organ con-
tracts in size under vibratory applications.
Contraction of the stomach to a sufficient
degree to illustrate its motile power prompt-
ly follows similar applications to the first,
second and third lumbar centers. Applica-
tions over the seventh cervical cause the
heart to contract. Scores of other examples
and illustrations might be cited.

PLATE III.

Fig. 11. Long Fluid Applicator for Rectum and Vagina.

Fig. 12. Extra Long Applicator with Attachment for Flushing Colon.

Fijt. 13. Metal Cone for Dilating Spliincter .\ni and reducing Hemorrhoids.

TECHNIC OF THE TREATMENT.

The success of Art depends upon the ac-
curacy with which it imitates or reproduces
Nature. Even the gorgons, hydras and
dragons, the Phoenix and the Dodo, so much
aped in classic literature and mythology, and
the grinning, grotesque and hideous gorgoy-
les, so prominently used to indicate high-
water mark in ornamental furnishings and
architecture, are all caricatures, and there-
fore imitations of natural objects.

To this rule therapeutic art is no excep-
tion. No substance or material, mold, mol-
lusk or mephitic vapor, nostrum, nitrite or
narcotic, vegetable poison or villainous vul-
nerary, has ever been discovered or con-
cocted that is too vile, deadly or disgusting
to be eagerly tested by some therapeutic in-
vestigator with a view to its remedial value.
But in every instance in which a therapeutic
reputation has been acquired there has been
some real or far-fetched resemblance to some-
thing normal and natural, to food, drink or
atmosphere.

Hydrotherapy has it rain bath, its shower
bath and its plunge. Phototherapy and Ther-
motherapy filch their virtues directly or in-
directly from the sun; and so on through the
list.

Vibratotherapy, or if you will, Rhythmo-
therapy, the newest and most important va-

riety of mechanotherapy, is even more direct-
ly copied from organic processes, from the
underlying law of life itself, since, as has been
shown, life originates and is perpetuated
only through rh3rthmic vibration.

The legitimacy and perfect propriety of
utilizing mechano-vibratory movements as
powerful means for the removal of diseased
conditions can therefore no longer be ques-
tioned.

Mechano-vital or Rhythmic treatment may
be briefly described under three heads — ^local,
general and special. Each of these divisions
or classes may be further subdivided into
deep and superficial, short and prolonged^ la-
bile and stabile. For deep applications, es-
pecially along the spinal column, with a view
to influence the spinal ganglia, a special form
of applicator is required. Usually it is in the
form of a round, semi-solid rubber ball. (See
cut) Another form is a hard rubber or metal-
lic, egg-shaped body, or obtuse cone. Super-
ficial applications do not need special descrip-
tion. They are administered by means of
oval or flat disks, made of metal, hard rubber
or wood. When of metal they are sometimes
covered with a soft rubber cap or cushion.
The terms short and long, as applied to de-
scribe the stroke, are self-explanatory. With
most forms of vibratory machines only sta-
bile applications are feasible. With all the

fiexible-artn machines that are supplied with
properly shaped applicators the labile touch
may be readily imparted. It is an important
and decidedly useful form of application.
With the so-called "rigid-arm" machine this
form of application is practically very limited
or impossible. Whether deep or shallow work
is realized depends very much on the length
and rapidity of the stroke imparted to the
applicator. This may be long, medium or
short, slow, medium or rapid, according to
the will of the operator, although in some of
the machines in the market there is no way
of regulating the length or intensity of the
stroke. In selecting a machine this point
should not be overlooked. Lack of means
for gauging the length of the stroke should
be considered a fundamental fault. Without
this facility the best work can not be realized.

Furthermore, the manufacturers and in-
terested advocates of the rigid arm form of
machine expend too much effort and enthus-
iasm in attempting to prove that no other
machine is capable of accomplishing any thor-
oughly satisfactory results. They succeed
to the extent of indirectly advertising the
serious handicap of non-adaptability in case
of their own machines.

To be limited to deep stabile applications
and to light stabile contact with the various
parts of the body is to be deprived of some

of the finest effects of this valuable therapeu-
tic measure. Stabile applications are efficient
in producing tonic. and stimulant effects; but
they are comparatively deficient in power to
induce those of a soothing and sedative char-
acter, which are quite as important as the
more robust modalities.

As will be inferred, all the various and ap-
parently contradictory effects of mechano-
vital vibration depend upon, first, the means
used; second, on the method of application;
and third, on the anatomical area or locality
to which the applications are addressed.

The question of means includes the selec-
tion of machines and appliances, and the dis-
crimination exercised in this direction will de-
termine the degree of success attainable by
each manipulator of the treatment. Each
manufacturer naturally insists that his partic-
ular apparatus combines all the desirable fea-
tures, and overcomes all the objectionable
ones of all other instruments. Physicians
themselves are too apt to become partisans,
or at least very much prejudiced in favor of
whatever form of static machine, coil, oper-
ating chair, or vibrator they have become
familiar with, — often to their own more or
less serious disadvantage. In a general and
very extensive practice two or more different
styles may be found more satisfactory than
any one form of apparatus. Among the many

devices offered there are several good ones,
and a goodly number that are of little or no
value to the professionally ambitious practi-
tioner. The suggestions already given will
serve as a guide in making a selection. It is
also well to bear in mind that progress is
the order of the day, and that as the faults
of the existing models become apparent, and
the needs of the profession are made known,
improvements are constantly being an*
nounced. It does not necessarily follow that
the newest model is an improvement over all
its predecessors.

The question of the beginner first of all
reverts to mechanical means, and the meth-
ods of practical application. During the few
years that have elapsed since mechano-vital
vibration has been made the subject of spe-
cial study, devices for developing its powers
and capabilities have multiplied, until there
is no dearth of "Vibrators" in the market.
In fact, the idea has been so vulgarized that
the department stores and sporting goods
houses are advertising five and ten-dollar
"Health" vibrators, for home use, while
many of the fashionable barbers — "Tonsorial
Artists I" — ^have added "vibrators" to their
office paraphernalia, and now do their
shampooing by machinery, calling the proc-
ess "vibra-massage."

The crudest of all apparatus is the per-

cussion hammer. It affords concussion,
which, although lacking rhythm, may be
made to initiate a degree of vibratory re-
sponse in the 'parts percussed. The blows of
the percussion hammer are not amenable to
exact regulation, either as to force or fre-
quency, being limited in the latter direction
to the possibilities of human muscles for al-
ternate contraction and relaxation. This va-
ries acording to individual temperament and
expertness acquired by practice ; but its range
scarcely exceeds a maximum of a few hundred
strokes per minute, at most. Slow and com-
paratively uncontrollable as to force, and
without any pretense of rh3rthm, as is this
method of arousing vibratory response, on
the part of a given tissue or structure, there
is no question but that a limited range of
definite results can be accomplished by a deft
use of it. Except for diagnostic purposes il
has never been, and probably never will be
much utilized.

The next means consists in manual manipit
lation, comes under the head of massage,
and has already been briefly described and
compared. The professional operator or
masseur does not call his art vibration^ nor
is it; but it induces more or less vibratory
response on the part of the tissues and struc-
tures manipulated. Manual massage, again,
is not susceptible of regulation as to rate or

rhythm; but it accomplishes some important
results, in addition to its stimulation of vibra-
tory motion on the part of muscles, nerves or
organs, over which it is applied. It accom-
plishes nerve and muscle stimulation by
means of kneading, squeezing, pinching, ex-
tension and compression, and some of its dis-
ciples allege a more or less indefinite and not
well understood degree of "magnetic influ-
ence."

Next come mechanical devices for repeat-
ing the blows of the percussion hammer, and
in some cases for a degree of lateral motion
which constitutes a form of mechanical mas-
sage.

To discriminate between the various con-
trivances it is necessary to take into account
several important factors, chief of which is
definite adjustability of the force, length,
rapidity of recurrence, and character of the
stroke.

Little as we are accustomed to think of it
in this sense, every form and modality of
electricity as already stated, is a modality
of vibration. Faradism represents the slow-
est and crudest form of electrical vibration,
for the reason that the device which meas-
ures the intervals of attraction and repul-
sion is a mechanical contrivance and subject
to the limitations of flexible steel. Galvan-
ism demonstrates its character as vibratory

motion or energy, by producing heat, and
causing the dissolution of tissues. The Roent-
gen and ultra violet rays, and all the high-
frequency currents are rhythmic vibrations of
incomputable rapidity.

ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD VIBRATOR.

The ideal machine for delivering mechano-
vital vibration should embody certain funda-
mental features.

1. It must be mechanically efficient, with
facilities for accomplishing a wide range of
work, and must be capable of applying its
action in any desired direction, and in any
position of the body.

2. It must be smooth-running, not
unnecessarily noisy, readily adjustable, dur-
able, and not likely to get out of order.

3. It must administer the major part of
its impulse to the patient rather than to the
operator.

4. It must be adapted to accommodate,
and must be supplied with a comprehensive
variety of applicators or vibratodes. (See
cuts.)

Many of the machines in the market are
decidedly lacking in some one or more of
these essential qualities. Some of them are
mechanically crude, and quite liable to be out
of order just when most needed. Others are

clumsy to handle, or limited as to range of
work, lack a sufficient variety of applicators,
or they vibrate the operator almost as much
as the patient. Still others are unreasonably
expensive.

A number of them do fairly good work in
certain limited lines but are incompetent in
other lines. For example, several extensively
advertised machines are especially adapted to
the administration of deep, penetrative ef-
fects, over the spinal ganglia and other parts
requiring deep work, but can not be con-
veniently utilized for rapid or sweeping sur-
face work. Accordingly, the advocates of
these particular machines are compelled to
make a hobby of deep spinal work, and to
decry all other varieties as of little or no
value. In any comprehensive general prac-
tice, labile and superficial applications are
quite as important and valuable as the more
profound work.

Under the head of "pneuma-massage" sev-
eral manufacturers have provided attach-
ments to their vibratory machines, and this
field is destined to attract much more atten-
tion than it has yet done. While the particu-
lar form of manipulation secured is not adapt-
ed to general work, it has a sphere that
can not be usurped or effectively imitated
by any other. The word "pneuma-massage"
scarcely describes the process. The device

as usually presented consists essentially of
a miniature air pump, so constructed that it
can be adjusted to deliver air-pressure, air-
suction, and alternate air-suction and air-
pressure. The value of these effects, locally
applied, will be apparent to every physician.
It will also be apparent that these manipula-
tions are not available for other than local
and circumscribed or regionally limited ap-
plication. Their field will be for the most
part restricted to the face, neck, throat, eye,
ear, etc.

Enough has been accomplished to prove
that in conjunction with the violet ray and
other electric modalities, much can be done
to prevent and restore the failing special
senses, sight, taste, hearing, etc., by means
of vibration and vibratory massage, and that
in partial paralysis and atrophy of the nerves
of special sense, and the general treatment
of the throat, nose, eyes and ears the aid of
this auxiliary will prove invaluable.

Some machines are capable of doing a good
general variety of work, without excelling
in any one line. The general practitioner,
who must limit himself to a single machine
should select one that combines the principal
features required for the performance of fair-
ly effective work in all lines. The specialist,
on the other hand, should select the machine
that acquits itself most satisfactorily in his
particular field of effort.
90

Fig, U. Small Fluid Appli&utor fui- Sensitive Pomtd,

Fif. 15. Small Fluid ApplicalLM* fur Eye, ete^

fig. IQ. Inrge Fluid Applicrttor fur Facjc, Eiir and Seoaitive Pojuta.

FORMS OF APPLICATORS OR
VIBRATODES.

To what has already been said it may be
added that the list supplied by the different
manufacturers includes some forms of ap-
plicators which the experienced operator will
seldom find it necessary to use. The one
that is most universal is the semi-solid rub-
ber ball. This ball is sometimes made of
metal or hard rubber. For this particular
applicator, semi-solid rubber is preferred by
most operators. This form is used prin-
cipally for deep work along the spine and
wherever deep work is required.

Disk vibrators, round in shape, and with
either a flat or convex surface, varying in
size from that of a half-dollar to about two-
and-a-half inches in diameter, have their uses,
and a form with a grooved surface is includ-
ed in many of the lists. Bell-shaped applicat-
ors, made of soft rubber are supplied by sev-
eral manufacturers, in various sizes, of which
at least two will be found very useful.

A so-called "brush" applicator, usually
made of rubber, or some pliable material,
consists of a disk studded with round-pointed
projections, has its uses, which will be else-
where referred to. It is often called a mul-
tiple-point vibratode.

A form of applicator, not as yet supplied
by all of the numerous manufacturers of vi-

bratory apparatus, is less kno¥ni and appre-
ciated than it should be. It is a disk about
four inches in diameter with a slightly
concave surface and rounded edges. In a
general practice this large disk can be made
quite as useful as any of the forms yet de-
vised, since it can be made gratefully sooth-
ing to tired, or overstrung nerves and hyper-
esthetic areas.

Rectal, urethral, vaginal and uterine vi-
bratodes are supplied in a variety of forms.

Quite recently one manufacturer has an-
nounced a vibrating stand and chair, by
means of which the entire body can be gent-
ly subjected to rhjrthmic, vibratory motion.
Much is claimed for these devices, the idea
being quite unique; and there are various
conditions in which they may be found
specially desirable. It would seem to be a
more definite, systematic and efficient realiza-
tion of Granville's theory and observation
concerning the beneficial effects of carriage
riding and railway travel.

FLUID CUSHION VIBRATION.

The latest advance in the line of appli-
ances involves an entirely novel principle,
namely, the interposition of a soft rubber
cushion filled with distilled water, between
the applicator and the patient. This device

can be used with any form of vibrators in
the market that have suitable means of at-
tachment and an easily adjustable stroke.
The result is a touch and stroke as soft and
pleasant as the feeling of velvet, and yet pos-
sessing no uncertain degree of effectiveness.
The eyes, nose, cheeks, brow — even the sub-
acutely inflamed appendix can be easily and
pleasantly vibrated with this device, without
a suspicion of injury, or even of noticeable
discomfort. For special work about the eyes,
face, ears, neck, over sensitive organs or
points, in the vicinity of tumors, in many
forms of neuritis, neuralgia, insomnia, etc.,
this recent invention opens a new field for
vibratory treatment.

Nor is this field limited to the use of hand
or local applicators. The principle has been
extended to include a fluid mattress, which
is constructed in compartments distinct from
each other, and so arranged that heat may
be applied to one or more of the compart-
ments, or to all of them, the degree being
automatically regulated by a thermostat; or,
any one of the compartments may be filled
with water, which by a refrigerating device
can be chilled down to any desired degree
above the freezing point, at will, and finally,
the entire mattress can be made rhythmically
soothing by vibration. Among the thousands
of therapeutic and surgical appliances

brotigfat to the notice of the professkm dur-
ing the past quarter of a century this is per-
haps the most unique and interesting, since
it promises material aid in a number of dis-
eases and emergencies now classed as the
most difficult and fatal which it falls to the
lot of the general practitioner and specialist
alike to treat. The cases which may be speci-
ally mentioned are, cerebroqnnal meningi tis,
typhoid fever, pneumonia, multiple neuritis^
insomnia, shock, and certain forms of insan-
ity. This water bed contemplates the utiliza-
tion of heat, cold and mechanical vibration,
applied to the entire body, or to any special
region, as the head, spinal cord, thorax, pel-
vis, nates or lower extremities, etc., as de-
sired. By the combination of heat at one
extremity, refrigeration at the other, and
mechanical vibration to the whole bed, very
powerful derivative effects, it is claimed, may
be secured. The field is an ambitious one,
which hospitals and sanatoria may find it
interesting to investigate.

LENGTH OF STROKE AND TIME OF
APPLICATION.

Both these are essential points, and on
their careful adjustment will largely depend
the question of results, whether these shall
be a pronounced success or a comparative

failure. A wrong application, either as to in-
tensity or duration, may quite negative or
even reverse the eflSects of any given treat-
ment. The beginner is inclined to use too
harsh a stroke, or to over-prolong a perfectly
proper one. Having selected a proper ap-
plicator for the work immediately in hand
and having adjusted the stroke with discre-
tion, the inexperienced operator should keep
freshly in mind the essential fact that either
light or deep pressure, briefly applied, first
soothes, and then stimulates; while deep and
prolonged pressure fatigues, and if pushed to
the extreme, finally inhibits the nerve center
over which it is applied.

In sensitive subjects, and in the same sub-
ject at different times, five seconds may be
quite sufficient for either soothing or stimu-
lative results. Those who have been accus-
tomed to observe the effects of manual mas-
sage can hardly comprehend, and will be
loath to credit this statement.

In certain chronic and obstinate cases, as,
for example, severe and long-standing con-
stipation, applications over the spinal ganglia
— eighth dorsal to the first sacral, may be
found necessary to permanent relief. It is
genuinely astonishing to see these cases, not
merely temporarily relieved, but apparently
permanently "cured," by no more than half
a dozen thorough applications. Of course, it

would be misleading to assert that this is a
uniform result, since the causes of chronic
constipation are so numerous and so radically
different that all cases are by no means indis-
criminately amenable to this or any other ex-
clusive and unaided treatment.

A brief application over any spinal nerve-
center is usually sufficient to bring the blood
promptly to the surface of the associated
area, suffusing the skin, and inducing a faint
sense of warmth and general glow. By pro-
longing the application the blood is in most
cases sent back to the organs or areas that
are influenced and controlled by the nerve-
centers acted upon. Thus stasis and conges-
tions are overcome, the circulation in the
organs quickened, and as a result, function-
ating is better performed.

In severe congestion of any organ direct
applications to the organ itself, through large
surface applicators, as a preliminary meas-
ure, are to be followed by stimulation of ad-
jacent lymphatics and of all the spinal cen-
ters, except those immediately associated
with the congested organ.

FORCE AND FREQUENCY.

Adding to what has already been said on
this topic, some writers on the subject of me-
chanical vibration are inclined to formulate
certain arbitrary! rules as to the length of
96

application, the force or pressure, and the
quality of the stroke to be used to produce
the effect aimed at, whether that be stimula-
tion, sedation or inhibition. This is a grave
mistake. Arbitrary rules in connection with
physiologic susceptibilities and vital reactions
are both inconsistent and irrational. They
ignore individual peculiarities and the per-
sonal equation that is always involved. The
apt diagnostician never loses sight of this es-
sential feature in making an analysis of each
subject brought before him, and in the appli-
cation of mechano-vital vibration it is even
more decidedly important. Not only do
individual subjects differ in their susceptibil-
ity to the treatment, as already set forth,
but the same person will respond differently
at different times. Those practitioners who
have ignored this fact, while experimenting
with the treatment, have either been disap-
pointed with the results, in some instances,
and have convinced themselves that certain
cases are helped and other quite similar ones
injured by vibratory applications. Not only
must e.ach case be studied on its own merits
and peculiarities, but the applications must
be adjusted to the patient's varying condi-
tion and susceptibilities, from day to day.

The best guide of which I have yet become
cognizant was suggested by my friend. Dr.
M. T. Runyon, of Oberlin, Ohio. Dr. Run-

yon has had much experience with vibratory
therapeutics, her practice including the pro-
fessional care of the female students of Ober-
lin College. The tentative rule suggested by
this expert operator is based on the observed
fact that each effective application to spinal
centers is followed sooner or later by a dis-
tinct glow or sensation of warmth along the
spine. Beginning with moderate pressure, the
application is to be made for a space of five
seconds at each point. If the patient reports
the expected glow this is sufficient for that
case and time. The result will be mild stimu-
lation. If no warmth is perceptible the vi-
brator is to be reapplied, the pressure in-
creased, and the time at each point pro-
longed, if need be, to eight or ten seconds.
If still no distinct sense of warmth is
experienced by the subject, either the pres-
sure is again increased or the time prolonged
to fifteen, or even twenty seconds. At one
seance a patient may give the required test
after five seconds of moderate pressure, and
at another sitting the same patient may re-
quire twice — possibly four times — the pres-
sure and time to produce an equally satisfac-
tory result. When stimulation is the object
in view this sense of warmth up and down
the spine seems to afford a fairly reliable,
though not in my experience an invariable
guide to the time and intensity of the appli-

cation indicated. In other localities no such
guide has been determined, but the operator
can infer from the spinal test approximately
about how long the applications should be
made in treating other regions of the body.*
In beginning the treatment of very suscep-
tible, very "nervous,** or very weak patients,
the operator must bear in mind that both
nerves and muscles of such subjects are eas-
ily fatigued. The applications must be brief
and of moderate force, using the shortest
and lightest stroke of which the apparatus is
capable. It is better to do too little than
too much, at the outset. For these subjects
it is well to use large or pliable applicators
until the existing hypersensitiveness has been
measurably overcome, which will usually oc-
cur after two or three treatments. Some of
the most enthusiastic commercial advocates
of the treatment pay little or no heed to
other regions tljan the spinal centers or gang-
lia, which is, to say the least a very grave
blunder. Very important work can be done
by means of superficial applications, especial-
ly in connection with superficial nerve
branches, the cutaneous circulation and the
lymphatic system. In making general mus-
culo-cutaneous or superficial applications,

♦One machine in the market — a portable style — ^makes
these directions seem inaccurate. In case of this particular
instrument pressure lessens the intensity or depth of the
vibratory impulse. With all other instruments that have
come to my attention this is a virtual contradiction.

the couch, table or chair, whichever is used.

The usual appliance is a couch, six feet
long, two fe(Bt wide, and twenty-six inches
high. It should have a sloping and slightly
raised head-rest, or a firm pillow may be
used. Instead of a couch, any good, adjust-
able surgical chair answers the purpose even
better, since it permits of ready revolution,
and any desired change of position.

The patient's outer clothing is to be loos-
ened or removed, to permit of intimate con-
tact with the surface of any given locality.
In a very busy practice the better class of
machines enable the operator to do very
efficient work outside the clothing. In all
special cases, however, the removal of at
least the outer garments should not be omit-
ted.

A DIGRESSION ON DIET.

Too much stress can not ht laid upon the
importance of diet in conjunction with vibra-
tory treatment. Most chronic and all the
wasting diseases are now treated almost ex-
clusively by "natural remedies," chiefly en-
vironment and diet. When a sufferer from
any form of wasting disease puts himself in
touch with nature, and finds himself capable
of ingesting, digesting and properly appro-
priating an increased quantity of food, he

lOI

generally believes, and his physician knows
that he is on the road to recovery.

The digestive and assimilative functions are
especially amenable to the "tonic," which is
but another name for stimulating influence
of mechano-vital vibration. It is, however,
a great mistake to stimulate the function
without giving especial attention to the qual-
ity as well as quantity of the food consumed.
Many general practitioners and most of the
specialists are lamentably indifferent and
careless respecting the daily dietaries of their
patients, usually enjoining a "plain" diet, even
when it would seriously puzzle them to pre-
pare an intelligent list of what they term
"plain" foods. Patients thus miscellaneously
prescribed for are quite as apt to betake
themselves to crackers and tea as other-
wise; and consequently would be as inade-
quately nourished as if they should attempt
to subsist on seafoam and sugar.

Not only is more food required during a
course of vibratory treatment, the quality
must be especially looked after. The treat-
ment is applied directly to the nerves and
their various ganglia, and while these func-
tionating intercommunicantes of the entire
system are so stimulated and invigorated as
to energize and enhance all the bodily func-
tions, and cause more rapid and efficient
general metabolism, the disintegration of

102

their own substance is decidedly accelerated,
and hence nerve-repair must be especially
and constantly provided for, by a liberal sup-
ply of nerve-nourishment. Quantity of food
is not usually at fault. Chittenden has sub-
stantially shown that a majority of the race
consume altogether too much food, and while
his deductions have as yet related more es-
pecially to healthy, working and exercising
subjects, there is no doubt that he might
have included a large majority of invalids,
with still greater insistence. As a rule in-
valids are plied with a fairly countless list
of concentrated, much-prepared and predi-
gested foods, to such an extent that they are
constantly and seriously overfed, as regards
quantity and variety, and this, without any
intelligent oversight as to the comparative
composition of the rich and costly pabulum
supplied to them. What is required is a
•more rational selection, with generally a dis-
criminate reduction of the total quantity in-
gested. In this respect the profession is pri-
marily to blame. As physicians we must
plead guilty of either negligence, indifference
or ignorance. We let the advertising food-
venders prescribe what our patients shall eat,
much as we let the advertising proprietors
of "elegant" pharmaceutical preparations pre-
scribe our drug-remedies. Our best work
will not be done until we give more attention

103

to this vital question of the feeding of our
patients. It certainly is not a matter of sec-
ondary importance, as we have all along and
almost universally made it. The patient,
whether suffering from chronic or acute mal-
adies, who is once placed upon a thoroughly
correct and competent dietary, has passed the
rubicon of his disease, regardless of what the
pharmacopeia is doing or undoing for him.
His physical destiny is more immediately in
the hands of his dietist than of his doctor,
except when his doctor really assumes the
function of dietist.

MODERN DIETETIC MISTAKES.

The vital mistake of the present-day diet-
ist is in forgetting that the human digestive
canal was never designed and is not adapted
to dealing with concentrated, prepared and
predigested aliment. It is anatomically de-
signed and functionally endowed with a view
to manipulating, dissociating and intelligent-
ly disposing of bulky, unprepared and com-
paratively innutritions comestibles. It there-
fore demands bulk, and asks for an opportun-
ity to make its own selection; whereas, we
give it artificially winnowed proximate prin-
ciples "ready for immediate assimilation,"
if we can believe the semi-professionally
sanctioned announcements. The result is

104

functional decadence and a gradual loss of
gastrointestinal capability, simply from per-
sistent and either wilfully or ignorantly im-
posed disuse. Anatomy, physiology and the
feeding history of the race, since its expul-
sion from the Garden, coincide to establish
the dietetic canon that the human stomach
primarily, and the entire digestive tract sec-
ondarily, require the presence of a certain
bulk and considerable refuse before they can
properly act.

Of such preponderating importance is this
question of dietetics in every form of dis-
ease and in connection with every method of
treatment that the doctor's title M. D. might
very aptly be made to stand for ''Mind the
Diet.'* If his patients eat properly, their
other physiologic peccadilloes will figure as
mere side shows. The circus proper has its
innings in the cook's tent.

The diet is the foundation of health and
the source of all vitality, consequently of all
physical, mental and spiritual energy and
growth.

Even morality is an outgrowth of sane
minds in sound bodies, and the Christianity
of the day limps because of liver complaint,
torpid digestive organs, and the uric acid
diathesis, on the part of its thoughtless, care-
less or pampered advocates.

loS

The little Japs won the unequal match
with the big Russians because they drew
vigor from virile food instead of from vodke.

Nine tenths of all the diseases of modern
life, are the direct or indirect results of faulty
feeding habits. Thoroughly correct these
bad habits, stimulate back to normal vigor
the debilitated digestive fiinction, and the dis-
eases vanish, without the aid of drugs, masseurs,
or mental science healers.

DIETETIC SCIENCE.

Furthermore, the dietist of today need no
longer waste his time in vague guessing, in
pandering to the gustatory whims and preju-
dices of his patients, or in listening to the
food faddists and the food pharmacists. He
can take his cue from the scientific analysts,
diagnose his patient's particular condition,
taking into account his weight and tempera-
ment, as a general groundwork. Previous
habits and present weaknesses aid in com-
pleting the physiologic and pathologic pic-
ture, and after a careful study of the com-
posite outline, an accurate diagnosis and
correct diet table should be as easily formu-
lated, as any problem in mathematics. Not
that Sir Henry Thompson, Pawlow, Mendel,
Atwater and Chittenden have had the last
word, or have yet crystallized their work into
an inflexible dietetic system, or a finished sci-
io6

ence. Much yet remains to be demonstrated,
since many details in physiology and vital
chemistry refuse to be limited by laboratory
rules, and yet elude the analyses of the astut-
est chemist.

But these investigators have abundantly
demonstrated that the human body, brain
and nerves require for their perfect develop-
ment and constant maintenance three quali-
ties of food, namely, proteids, fats and car-
bohydrates; and that these proximate prin-
ciples must bear a certain proportion to each
other, in order to adequately meet the nutri-
tive wants and expenditures of all the va-
rious tissues of the body. They have fur-
ther demonstrated that the individual who
habitually consumes three of four times the
requisite quantity of proteid foods, will soon-
er or later suffer the inevitable results, in the
form of uric acid disturbances, whose name
is legion, ranging all the way from periodic
headaches to gout, rheumatism and apoplexy.
The one who takes too little proteid and too
much fatty food will suffer from a different
form of ailment; while a third, who limits his
dietary chiefly to some form of carbohydrate
— the basis of nearly all the "prepared" foods
in the market — soon gives evidence of a
pasty and semi-starved condition of his brain
and nerves, with more or less general de-
bility of his muscular system.

107

The question of quantity has also been ap-
proximately determined. On this point the
standard authorities of two decades ago were
neither well-informed nor in accord, and it has
devolved upon Professor Chittenden, of
Yale College, to finally determine and an-
nounce a rational standard. Formerly it was
held that an adult man required from 2,500
to 3,500 calories of food units per diem, to
supply him with available energy for his
daily work, and for the maintenance of his
bodily temperature. Chittenden has prac-
tically established his contention that this
quantity is excessive. His standard ranges
from 1,400 to 2,500 calories, according to the
season> and the weight, age, occupation, tem-
perament and mental and physical activity of
the individual. One engaged in severe physi-
cal labor requires from 25 to 30% more mus-
cle food than one who is engaged in mental
work, or than one who is comparatively in-
active.

About the same increase is required by a
person exposed to low temperatures. It has
further been shown that the increased intake
under these mentioned conditions should be
chiefly in fats and carbohydrates, rather than
in proteids.

Gautier's theory is, that the quantity of
food required depends upon the skin sur-
face or superficial area of the body, since the

io8

skin acts as the medium of heat-loss, which
loss the food must constantly replenish. The
skin surface varies with the age. Thus, a
child weighing ten pounds, has a cutaneous
surface of about three square feet, while a
man weighing 180 pounds has but 21 square
feet. The child, therefore, requires one sev-
enth instead of one-eighteenth as much food
as the man.

Over-ingestion of proteids leads to ar-
terial degeneration, and this favors the oc-
currence of cerebral hemorrhages, from which
so frequently dates the beginning of numer-
ous maladies, including partial paralyses, op-
tic atrophy and the impairment or loss of
other special senses.

The rule given for approximately estimat-
ing the number of calories or food units re-
quired by an individual is to multiply his
weight in pounds by the factor 4.25, and the
skin area by 80. The sum of these two
products, gives the number of calories re-
quired to replenish both vital energy ex-
pended and heat dissipated by conduction,
radiation, evaporation, etc.

As to proportions, the average adult re-
quires daily about 200 calories or food units
of proteids, 700 of fats, and 1,200 of car-
bohydrates. The proteids serve the pur-
pose of replenishing worn out tissue, but do
not supply heat. The fats and carbohydrates

109

supply both heat and energy, fats yielding
twice as many food heat units, pound for
pound, as carbohydrates. In round numbers
the daily ration should consist of one part
each of fats and proteids (or one of proteids,
two of fats) and six of carbohydrates. A
considerable latitude is allowable, since the
system readily takes care of a reasonable and
not habitual excess of any one principle,
either by storing it in the cellular tissues, or
by expelling it through the various emunc-
tories. A balanced ration consists of a suffi-
ciency of food, in proper proportions as to
its proximate elements, and prepared in a di-
gestible and appetizing manner. Of this lat-
ter quality the laboratory chemist takes no
cognizance, yet it stands second in importance
to the chemical purity and appropriateness
of the food products themselves.

Tables of the food values of nearly all the
food products in the market are at the com-
mand of every physician ; and yet, in the face
of all these facts, which embrace the accumu-
lated wisdom of the nineteenth century in re-
lation to diet, it is almost unbelievable that
an overwhelming majority of the practising
physicians of the day are either ignorant,
indifferent or incorrigibly narrow and preju-
diced on the subject of diet.

As a profession we ought to be ashamed
of the dietetic rut in which most of us, and

even some of the very best of us habitually
travel. We all know that no digestive appa-
ratus, outside that of the ostrich or an orang-
outan, can long maintain its integrity if fed
in an irregular and slipshod manner.

It ought not to be necessary to remind
medical practitioners that of all men the mod-
ern physician should be a living exponent of
the known laws of hygiene, sanitation and
dietetics, instead of which most of us are so
careless in our feeding habits, that we are
compelled to pettifog with our consciences
and plead guilty to the quite common charge
of preaching temperance with our tongues
and pens, while we ourselves practise glut-
tony, irregularity and sensual indulgence in
the caffe, the banquet room and at our own
tables.

Let it be reiterated that digestion is the
dominant factor of all organic life, whether
of tree, tuber, trilobite, mollusk or mammal,
which makes this premeditated and some-
what extended digression more than pardon-
able.

The epileptic emperor who sensationally
exclaimed: "Let me make the songs of a
nation and I care not who makes its laws,"
had his aptness in physiology and histology
been equal to his genius for statecraft and
military intrigue, would have translated his
epigram into: "Let me make the bread of a

III

nation, and its preachers, parliaments and
courts of law can take a permanent vaca-
tion."

One of these days the reformed cook will
be hailed as the Czar of Civilization.

Foodstuffs are the fulcrum by which the
genius of the age moves the markets of
Christendom, and catering to the demands of
the public stomach practically absorbs the
commerce of the world.

A DEFENSE OF CRANKS.

If some reader says "crank" it may be
retorted that to be a crank is not necessarily
a stigma, since all the machinery of the
world is moved by cranks. Every wheel that
turns is but a hubful of rotating cranks ; your
modern theologian is either a fossil or a
moralizing crank; the teacher who dares to
get outside the respectable rut in which strut
all his mediocre and conforming colleagues
is an educational crank; the statesman with
a theory two degrees above "graft" is a po-
litical crank; and the medical man who rises
above routine, has convictions of his own,
and the courage to announce and stand by
them, is a medical crank. Thus the dietetic
crank has plenty of the most respectable
company.

112

The bread of a nation, in other words, its
feeding habits, determine its brawn, its brain,
and its place and position in the parliaments
of the world. It has passed into a proverb that
the question of alimentation rather than that
of armament determines the fortunes of war.
But for the men behind them, the gnns of the
battleship would be but so much unwieldy
weight, to help sink the ship when disabled
by the enemy. Every battle of the late
Russo-Japanese war was won by the hardy
little men who were better nourished than
their heavier enemies.

The subject is well exemplified in the his-
tory of the honey-bee. At birth the baby
bees are anatomically exactly alike. To de-
velop each into a worker, a drone or a royal
queen is merely a matter of diet, which the
queen mother dictates and regulates without
eflFort and with unerring certainty. If kept
at the ordinary, table of the hive, the em-
bryotic sex organs degenerate into a sting,
and forever relegate the resultant bee to the
ranks of the workers and warriors, who do
the daily foraging, fabricating and occasional
fighting of their instinctively acknowledged
superiors. Fed on a specially selected diet
the favored baby bee becomes a gentleman
drone, with nothing more serious to do than
to sun his wings every morning, play the
gallant to a capricious, insatiable and su-

prcmely jealous queen, and to propagate a fu-
ture colony. Finally, if nurtured on a still
more specially selected regimen, known to
apiarists as "royal jelly," the nondescript and
democratic baby bee, thus pampered of for-
tune, evolves into a royal queen, who heads
a new dynasty, leads her loyal subjects to a
new kingdom, and reigns over her proud and
obedient followers, until it is time to evolve
a successor; whereupon the same develop-
mental process is repeated, a new autocracy
in due time announces itself, and either se-
cedes, or is sequestered and compelled to seek
its own fortunes in other fields.

It is not so different with the human ani-
mal; hence the German adage, "Tell me
what you eat and I will tell you what you

GETTING BACK TO NATURE.

This climax and prodigy of evolution, the
human infant, after a twelvemonth of help-
less and toothless bliss, cradled in his moth-
er's arms, and fed from the ungrudging ma-
ternal fount, gradually finds himself com-
pelled to turn cannibal, ape the commissary,
or become a cook. There is no sentiment in
nature. She practically says to every new-
comer :

114

''Cast the bantling on the rocks,
Suckle him with the she wolfs teat ;
Wintered with the hawk and fox,
Power and speed be hands and feet."

Being structurally neither an amphibian,
a ruminant nor a camivora, necessity com-
pelled the primitive bantling to g^aw barks,
dig roots and climb trees for his food. Thus,
he was obliged to wrench his sustenance
from the soil, forage for it in the forest, and
dive for it in the waters.

The victims of all forms of wasting disease
virtually starve to death, not because they do
not eat a sufficient quantity of food, not even
because that food is not sufficiently nutritious.
It is because the enfeebled system is under-
nourished and the digestive organs rendered
incapable of selecting, dissociating and ap-
propriating the proper elements from the
pabulum supplied. Even when food is sup-
plied, in no matter how liberal quantity, or
how perfect in quality, the trophic centers pre-
siding over the digestive processes often lack
stimulus. Under normal conditions nutrition
is the only legitimate and true stimulant.
Drugs and alcoholics are yet popular, but
tantalizingly delusive substitutes. They
sometimes tide over a temporary crisis, but
they impart no permanent or sustaining im-
pulse to the organism, prodding only to
subsequently prostrate it.

Some of these assertions and illustrations
may seem at first sight farfetched or inapt,
but they logically lead up to the often over-
looked deduction that while mechano-vital
vibration may be made to act as a physiolog-
ical stimulant to dormant nerve-centers and
debilitated functions, it is worse than use-
less to invoke its aid unless nature's one per-
manent and reliable stimulant — nourishment
— is properly, adequately and constantly sup-
plied with it.

A few concluding dietetic aphorisms will
not be out of place:

Even heredity, environment and chronic
personal habits are largely dictated and domi-
nated by the state of an individual's digestive
organs.

To be physically, intellectually and morally
damned it is only necessary to live on a
damned diet.

People who live in constant dread of mis-
eries that may never materialize, who are too
ignorant or indolent to do their own think-
ing, patronize a dark-circle "medium," tip
the soiled palm of the Queen of the Gypsies,
consult the stars, or ask the doctor. The
sane and sensible man appeals to his cook.

Modern society waltzes to one of three
tunes — neurasthenia, heart-failure or appen-
dicitis. When these fail to materialize, or
grow a trifle monotonous there are diabetes,

ii6

Bright's disease, carcinoma and consumption

waiting their inning.

Every one of these devastating scourges is
a direct sequence of dietetic ignorance, diet-
etic inadvertencies, or dietetic wilfulness.

Thus, it is Diet, with a big D, that dic-
tates the destiny of individuals, communities
or nations.

The dietetic sins of the father are visited
upon the sons and daughters, even to the sev-
enth generation.

Military genius and indigestion never sleep
in the same tent.

The soldier's fortitude is furnished by his
food.

PURE FOOD AND POOR FOOD.

"When hayseed and sugar, colored red with aniline dyes,
are sold for raspberry jam in greater quantity than the real
stuff; when old felt cloth is chopped up, rotted with acids,
and sold for mushrooms; when rotten eggs are deodorized
with chemicals and sold to bakers to be used in making
cake; when spoiled fish having gone beyond borax, is
treated with salts of zinc, aluminum and oUier metals, and
the gills colored with coal tar dyes to give them a fresh
look; when boracic acid is squirted over chopped beef, to
"sweeten it," by tiie butcher, under the customer's very
eyes — ^when these and countless other unsanitary enormi-
ties are daily perpetrated upon a people who have no
defense, the time for drastic legislation on the subject of
pure food would seem to have arrived." — Editorial Daily
Press.

It is a bad black eye to our boasted civili-
zation and assumed refinement when it is
necessary for the daily press to seriously
and thus almost frantically discuss the ques-

117

tion of the legal regulation of food manu-
factures and the traffic in the means of life.
It is an evil of startling magnitude and seems
to be growing.

But it IS not enough to petition the legis-
latures and Congress, for stringent laws
against this well known and well nigh uni-
versal practice of adulteration. "Chalk, and
alum, and plaster are sold to the poor for
bread," doctored fusel oil and flavored dilu-
tions of sulphuric acid and logwood are
labeled "pure rye," and everywhere semi-
decayed foods are made salable by the use of
boroglycerid and formaldehyd. Even if
these gross adulterations and villainous fab-
rications could be completely prohibited, so
that only chemically pure food could be found
in the markets, the world would still be Very
far from a dietetic millenium. Food may
be chemically as pure as the snows that
wreath the summit of Mont Blanc, and yet
be very poor nourishment, from a hygienic
and physiologic point of view.

A NEW FIELD FOR VIBRATORY
TREATMENT.

In an article in a recent number of the
Medical Record (Jan. 6, 1906) the writer en-
deavored to arouse an interest, on the part
of the general profession, in behalf of the con-

ii8

stantly increasing army of sufferers from
certain forms of blindness and deafness, re-
sulting from atrophy or paralysis of the spe-
cial nerves supplying the eye and ear. This
is a new field, with room for much further
investigation and promise of gratifying re-
sults.

Atrophy of the optic nerve, in particular,
is one of the diseases in which oculists,
with great unanimity, agree in pronouncing
the prospect hopeless. It is equally well-
known that partial deafness has not proved
readily amenable to any treatment heretofore
in vogue.

Without entering into any study of the
causes producing these distressing maladies
the immediate and essential condition, in a
great majority of cases, is anemia and star-
vation of the nerves involved. When the
cause has had an inflammatory origin, either
acute or chronic, more or less exudation has
occurred, and compression or choking of the
nerve has deprived it of its normal blood-
supply, and therefore of its nutrition. It
would be unreasonable to claim that mechan-
ical vibration, unaided, can cope with this
serious and complicated condition; but it has
now been satisfactorily demonstrated that it
can be made a powerful and reliable factor
in any rational effort to relieve these despair-
ing and unfortunate patients.

119

Recognizing that in many if not in a ma-
jority of these cases there has been either a
hemorrhage or a plastic exudation in the im-
mediate vicinity of the affected nerves, the
first and really fundamental object of any ra-
tional treatment must be to promote absorp-
tion of the effused products or exudates. Here-
tofore, chiefly on account of the prevailing
opinion that most of these cases are of spe-
cific origin, the specialists have quite invaria-
bly and quite as vainly resorted to a more or
less heroic use of mercury and the iodides.
In view of the fact that the failure of these
drugs is so universally admitted, it must be
inferred that modern practitioners resort to
them more from habit and tradition than
from any rational faith in their success. The
other weapon of the oculo-neurologist is
strychnia, in steadily increasing doses, push-
ed to the limit of the patient's toleration.
This potent prod to dormant or debilitated
nerves is used in the vain hope of restoring
the tone of an unresponsive organ or tissue
until there is at least a temporary return to
normal function.

In connection with the violet ray and oth-
er high frequency currents, carefully adapted
to the pathologic condition involved, and an
occasional resort to the ordinary x-ray, or to
the new, unipolar, circumscribed and local
form of the same, or to cataphoresis, to hasten

I20

dissolution of existing exudates, the persistent
use of mechanovital vibration supplies an
agency which affords more assurance of posi-
tive and permanent relief than any agency yet
employed.

Behind all these diseases of the special
senses there is unquestionably a morbid met-
abolism of the entire system. No treatment
that limits its effort to the eye, ear or other
special organ can hope to make a permanent
impression so long as this metabolic demor-
alization continues. The value of mechano-
vital vibration in correcting and restoring
morbid metabolism need not here be reiterat-
ed, since that is its special forte, and this vol-
ume is little more than an earnest effort to
corroborate and establish this claim.

But it will not be sufficient for the practi-
tioner to put his faith in this agency, to the
neglect or exclusion of everything else. Any
sensible or successful treatment will be the
result of a much more comprehensive view
of the conditions to be met, and will not con-
fine itself to a routine application of, no mat-
ter how skilfully adapted mechanical manip-
ulation. First of all, in accordance with what
is elsewhere emphasized, as to its predomi-
nating importance, diet should be made the
subject of first consideration. The subject
whose special senses are any of them degen-
erating must be promptly placed upon a diet

121

that does not tend to further increase the di-
vergence of the vital functions from the nor-
mal status already disturbed. In fact the diet
must be made much more than a merely nega- .
tive factor. It must be so regfulated that it
will second all the other efforts to induce ab-
sorption of any ascertained or suspected exu-
dates, or semi-organized tissue that has a di-
rect or indirect bearing on the case. In ple-
thoric subjects the intake of food will general-
ly be found to have been much in excess of the
needs of the body. When this is permitted
to continue no treatment can be made effec-
tive in causing absorption. The prescribed
daily ration should, on the other hand, be
made temporarily less than the normal needs
of the body. In many other cases it will be
found feasible to diminish the quantity of
food ingested, while at the same time main-
taining or even increasing its digestive and
sustaining quality. Especially must the pro-
teid element be carefully regulated, to the
end that it shall not contain a single calorie
in excess of the nitrogenous needs of the
body. The law of universal equipose and
compensation holds as imperiously in regard
to vital functions and body tissues as in any-
thing else. If too great proportion of nitro-
genous foods be habitually ingested the dan-
ger of hemorrhages, morbid deposits and ex-
udates or effusions is definitely increased. If

122

there is an excessive consumption of starches
and sweets there will be a likelihood of both
fatty deposits and fatty degenerations in
some portion of the organism. This is a pre-
vailing fault in modern ways of living.

Again, the food prescribed for this class of
invalids must be rich in the phosphorus-bear-
ing, nerve and brain nourishing elements.

Even when all these details have been in-
telligently recognized, and positively correct
rules of diet and living conscientiously car-
ried out' there are other precautions and re-
quirements which are equally essential. The
dietary may be accurately prescribed as to
its proximate principles, and the subject may
be both accurate and conscientious in carry-
ing out the prescription, yet may make his
selection from concentrated, much "prepared
and predigested" foodstuffs that will prove
obnoxious to the digestive organs, because —
it can not be too often repeated — they lack
bulk and refuse, which are quite as essential
as actual nutritive value. The inevitable re-
sult is constipation, and no person in health,
let alone an invalid, can thrive in spite of
habitual constipation.

Having attended to the patient's general
condition, from the standpoint of the general
practitioner, instead of that of the unwary
specialist, who may too frequently limit him-
self to the revelations of his ophthalmoscope.

123

the next step is to map out a systematic
course of treatment which shall keep three
cardinal objects in view.

First, a moderate degree of depletion, more
thorough in cases of plethoric subjects and
men of coarse and careless habits. Line
upon line and precept upon precept let it
again be reiterated that any existing bad
dietetic habits, and all existing unhygienic
vices must be radically reformed. The use
of tobacco in any form, of spiritous liquors,
tea, coflfee and beer must be peremptorily in-
terdicted.

In those of full habit brisk purgation once
a week, using, preferably, an active saline,
such as Carlsbad sprudel salts, or Hunyadi
Janos, will be conducive to the general result
desired. In some cases, accompanied with
torpid liver and a foul and sluggish condition
of all the secretions, the saline should be pre-
ceded by half a dozen or more, one-tenth or
one-sixth grain, doses of old fashioned calo-
mel and soda, or calomel, soda and iridin.

Second, twice a week for four weeks, and
once a week thereafter, during the course of
treatment, the patient should take a Turkish
bath, substituting, when feasible, an electric
light cabinet for the usual hot room. This
much by way of preparation for the active
treatment, which should include the follow-
ing:

124

Five to ten minutes daily application of the
ultra violet ray, through properly shaped
vacuum electrodes, applied to the closed eye-
lids; five minutes of a like application, using
a duplex electrode, applied simultaneously to
the eye and the temple, over the Gasserian
ganglion. The strength of the current may
be gradually increased, according to the sus-
ceptibility of the subject, until it is represent-
ed by a spark gap of one to one-and-a-half
inches.

Five minutes bipolar application of the
D'Arsonval current, through vacuum elec-
trodes placed opposite each other on the tem-
ples, reversing the current at the middle of
the application.

Vibratory applications are to be made with
much discretion, using soft rubber bell vibra-
todes, a properly shaped fluid applicator, or
the pneuma-massage attachment elsewhere
mentioned, over the eyes themselves, more
vigorously about the temples, over the Gas-
serian ganglia, and in the mastoid regions.
These applications must be vigorous and care-
fully adapted in each case.

In anemic cases, and when there is a lurk-
ing suspicion of specific taint the metabolism
of the entire system may be profoundly in-
fluenced by means of the, already mentioned,
"auto-condenser,*' or violet ray chair attach-
ment, now available for this purpose.

I2S

THE PROVINCE OP INHIBITION.

By a majority of the advocates of mechan-
ical vibration in therapeutics great stress is
laid on the item or idea of inhibitioiL To the
thoughtful beginner, the question arises,
"what is inhibition, and how wide is its legit-
imate sphere?"

Undoubtedly there are some conditions and
emergencies in which inhibition, when avail-
able, proves of instant and unquestioned val-
ue. But when it is further asked as to what
are the indications, and how frequently is
this measure called for in general practice, it
will puzzle the average practitioner, even
though he be familiar with the theory of me-
chanical vibration, to give a categorical an-
swer that will be at all satisfactory. In a
definitive way it will be safe to say that inhi-
bition implies the arrest or modification of
function. When any organ of the body be-
comes abnormally active, or when a viscus or
region becomes congested by an abnormal
accession of blood to the part, it is assumed,
by the aforesaid advocates, that the operator
must resort to applications that will tempor-
arily deprive the part of its blood and nerve
supply, with a view to lessening nerve activ-
ity, or dispersing congestion. To a certain
extent this is possible, but it is evident that
the range of this possibility is not great, nor
are the results ideal. The reflecting patholo-

126

gist will be prompted to inquire whether the
process can be called a natural one, and
whether the means invoked to induce it may
not be substituted by more rational, equally
effective, and perhaps more lasting proce-
dures.

Instead of inhibiting the overactive org^n
or tissue, may not the same result be attain-
ed by diversion, that is by stimulating either
a contiguous or a distant part? Indirect and
derivative action is often quite as efficient
and quite as natural as the inhibitive effort,
and it is so generally feasible that on second
thought many practitioners will prefer to try
it before resorting to inhibition, and may
even ask whether the latter can not be en-
tirely abandoned.

Reverting to physiologic principles, is inhi-
bition in any sense a natural process? The
advanced modern physican realizes that he is
acquitting himself with credit when he suc-
ceeds in directing the vis medicatrix naturae.
When, on the contrary, he undertakes to in-
terrupt, annul or reverse Nature's forces, he
is quite inclined to feel that he has abandon-
ed his legitimate shibboleth.

Again, is it not a practical fact that the
vibrationist, in particular, relies upon the
stimulation of dormant nerves, ganglia and
functions for at least ninety-nine one hun-
dredths of his results, and can he not culti-

127

vate sufficient expertness to accomplish the
remaining one per cent of his work without
resorting to point blank inhibition?

To those who have not passively fallen
into a matter of fact way of thinking, that
because the early authorities on mechanical
therapeutic vibration assumed that inhibition
was an integral and essential part of the
treatment, these questions deserve a more
through consideration. Perhaps further ex-
perience will teach us that nearly or quite all
the results now aimed at through nerve inhi-
bition can be secured by equally prompt,
equally feasible, and quite as legitimate, as
well as more natural and therefore, more sat-
isfactory means.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO SELECTING AN
INSTRUMENT.

In view of the fact that the market is now
well supplied with instruments of all grades
and descriptions, the practitioner who can not
test them all for himself will be puzzled to
decide which of a dozen different patterns or
makes to select for his particular class of
work, whether that be general practice or
some special line. This question is of much
importance, since without a capable instru-
ment no operator can hope to attain to more
than mediocre success.

128

For this reason a further word on this sub-
ject will not be out of place.

If one could credit the claims of the man-
ufacturers, each has produced the only in-
strument which "includes all the good quali-
ties of its competitors, while combining many
that are specially its own." One company
may loudly and persistently insist that its
instrument is the only one by means of which
vibratory stimulation can be accomplished;
and other manufacturers may claim more
than truth warrants as to other features of
their machines. When a vendor claims too
much for his wares, and is too uncompromis-
ing as to the alleged virtues and defects of
all others, he discredits his own probity, and
men of ordinary shrewdness are inclined to
look with justifiable suspicion on even such
of his assertions as are really true. A dignified
and honorable manufacturer is content with
emphatically stating his own claims, without
going beyond the bounds of reason and cour-
tesy to disparage those of his competitors.

Only general principles and essential fea-
tures can be mentioned in a work of this
kind, without incurring a charge of bias or
favoritism. It would be easy to illustrate a
dozen different makes of instruments and
comment on their good and bad features, but
the above criticism would be certain to be
made, and the skeptical physician would still

129

be left in doubt. Again, it would be easy to il-
lustrate all the leading varieties, state just
what their makers claim for them, and leave
intending purchasers to choose for them-
selves. But this negative advice merely
duplicates the claims of the catalogues, is
more aggravating than no advice, and would
cumber the volume to no purpose. Enough
has already been said to aid intelligent prac-
titioners in deciding upon the merits and de-
merits of the various machines, except that
it is difficult to decide from printed descrip-
tions as to the practical working and per-
manent wearing qualities of any special ma-
chine, without actually using it personally or
learning from those who have had satisfac-
tory practical experience with it. Mechani-
cal perfection has not yet been attained. Im-
provement is the order of the day. The ma-
chine that was "best" a few years ago may
now be much behind some later achievement.
Some machines are good for general work;
while other specimens are better for certain
special lines of work. The intending pur-
chaser should bear this in mind. Most man-
ufacturers are willing to place their machines
in a physician's office, on probation, or on
approval, and the puzzled practitioner who
avails himself of this privilege — ^which, how-
ever, at great distances from an agency is
not always feasible, — may avoid making an

injudicious purchase.

130

DICTIONARY OF DISEASES.

For the guidance of those who are unfa-
miliar with vibratory technic, and who in the
absence of didactic and positive directions
hesitate as to methods, and their adaptation
to each individual case, this list of suggestive
outlines is appended.

The experienced operator, and even the
apt amateur will have no need for such nec-
essarily academic reiteration of modalities
and basic principles, but will substitute such
modifications and original methods as per-
sonal tact may devise and personal experi-
ence approves.

To such no further apology is necessary.

A GENERAL OUTLINE OF TECHNI-
CAL RULES.

Reverting to the technical side of the sub-
ject, routine medicine is very much like ma-
chine poetry. It is anything but ideal or
scientific, yet many very respectable prac-
titioners demand fixed rules of practice, and
that every remedy or measure shall be duly
labeled. Perhaps a comfortable majority of
all the practising physicians in the country
are more or less guided by rules, tradition

and precedents as to the dosage of drugs,
and as to the how, where, and how long,
of applications and manipulative measures;
therefore it seems necessary to append some
more specific directions as a g^ide for this
large class of medical men, who are either
too busy or too indolent to work out their
own details from a general grasp of underly-
ing principles. At the same time, in con-
nection with mechano-vital vibration and its
application to the relief of human suffering
and disease, every experimenter is strongly
urged to master the physiological principles
on which it is based and then formulate his
own rules of administration, without regard
to the narrow rut of routine, in which travel
all the quacks, charlatans and mediocres of
the ilk.

Preliminary to the following condensed
tabulation or Dictionary of Diseases arrang-
ed for convenience in alphabetical order, a
brief discussion of certain basic outlines will
doubtless aid beginners in studying the treat-
ment.

Anemia is a concomitant of most chronic
diseases, and is a resultant of inanition. Blood-
impoverishment may result from actual un-
derfeeding or starvation, or from a disturb-
ance of the metabolism of the body, which
interferes with the digestion and assimila-
tion of food. In the latter condition, as the

132

digestion flags the appetite becomes capri-
cious and the starved blood loses hemaglo-
bin, the muscles become flaccid and the com-
plexion pallid, lack-luster or cadaverous.

To successfully treat any chronic disease
necessitates the discovery and removal of its
cause. This is emphatically true of anemia,
which is not a disease proper but a resulting
condition. All anemics are dyspeptics, of one
or another class. Nearly all are sufferers
from intestinal indigestion and chronic con-
stipation. While these persist the anemia
persists. Remove these by appropriate treat-
ment, restore digestive and assimilative vig-
or, after which the anemia will have no
further standing in court.

The typical subject of anemia is usually a
bundle of hyperesthesia. A careful physi-
cal examination usually develops sensitive
points at several centers along the spine, the
liver and spleen are torpid, the pancreas is
out of commission, the stomach either flac-
cid or contracted, the skin dry, and the se-
cretions scanty.

Before resorting to any special treatment
for anemia the diet must be generously ad-
justed and the appetite assiduously courted.
There is apt to be marked cutaneous hyper-
esthesia. This should first be overcome by
superficial and very gentle vibration. When
this has been measurably relieved the spinal

133

ganglia should receive attention. Use, at the
outset, the large applicator and a light, rapid
stroke, taking care not to fatigfue any set of
nerves or muscles. The length of the appli-
cations and the tension of the stroke can be
gradually increased.

Since anemia is, as stated, almost invaria-
bly preceded and accompanied by faulty
metabolism and disordered nutrition, it can
be radically and permanently cured only by
restoring normal tone to these processes.
This brings us to a consideration of,

The indigestions, which as urged in the
chapter on diet, are the underlying factors
in an overwhelming majority of all the physi-
ologfic disturbances, by whatever name they
may be called, that the practitioner is called
upon to treat. It is the skeleton that hides
in every domestic closet, and enters unbidden
at every banquet hall. To lay this ghost is
to give the race a new lease of life.

The question, "can anemia, tuberculosis
and other forms of wasting diseases be pre-
vented and cured?" is being more and more
anxiously reiterated every year. It is more
frequently asked today than ever before in
the history of medicine; and at last it is
being less hesitantly answered in the affirma-
tive. This response is coupled with the ex-
press stipulation that the patient must be
brought to a condition in which he can eat.

134

digest and assimilate an adequate quantity
and proper quality of food, breathe plenty of
pure, out-door air, and live in the midst of
a hygienic environment. To bring about
these fundamental conditions mechano-vital
vibration can be made a powerful ally. As a
legitimate auxiliary of bettered general con-
ditions and revolutionized habits of hygiene
and feeding, it can be relied on to arouse
successful recuperative efforts on the part of
the innate vital energies. The repair of tis-
sue-waste is accelerated, germ-fostering con-
ditions are eliminated, and the entire vital
mechanism is reenforced and invigorated.
The patient begins to feed better, because
his system demands and receives more oxy-
gen, and is able to digest and assimilate more
and better nutriment. Thus replenished. Na-
ture reasserts her supremacy over invading
and deleterious influences, whether these be
living germs or dead cells — the resultant
debris of hastened metabolism. The con-
structive forces begin to build faster than
the destructive activities tear down, until the
restored tissues become competent to antag-
onize and prevent further invasion. Having
reached this stage the vital forces recover
lost tone, evolve fresh accessions of energ^y,
and sooner or later become practically im-
mune to every ordinary form of degenerate
influence.

13s

In adapting vibratory measures to the
treatment of anemia, its causative factors
and endless train of ills, weaknesses and dis-
tresses, the first effort must therefore be di-
rected to the nutritive function and normal
metabolism. For this purpose the popular
faith, based on professional or semi-profes-
sional endorsement, is centered in so-called
"tonics." In its popular sense the word
"tonic" is a delusion, and even in a majority
of professional minds refers to almost any
substance or agency that will stir up a tem-
porary excitement in the system. A real
tonic builds up instead of merely "booming."
It strengthens instead of exciting; it feeds
instead of frightening the vital forces. It is
a true restorative instead of a temporary
stimulant.

Constipation is almost invariably present.
To correct this serious condition is impera-
tive, if any permanent betterment is to be
hoped for. A thoroughly nourishing and pos-
itively nonobstructing dietary is to be pre-
scribed and religiously followed. This done
in a majority of cases, the judicious manipu-
lation of the vibratory apparatus will do the
rest. Gastric and intestinal atony is usually
a prominent symptom. Besides toning up the
entire system by general applications over
the spinal centers, splanchnics and solar
plexus, the ball vibratode is to be applied,

136

PLATE V .

THE HUM.tS FIGURE -Anteridr Viewr.

fihowing, in Colors. Surface Areas Rt^fJcily AsaocLited irith VJscprtii Diaenpe,

smd Directly RdiUid to the Vflrioua SpinaJ G^iu;li:u

MCI

PLATE Vt .

THE Hill AX FIGirRE-Poaterinr View

i^houiiii]; Hebted Arcfls, iX£ in Pbte VlL

lightly at first, but with gradually increasing
force, over the entire colon, beginning at the
ileo-cecal valve and ending at the sigmoid
flexure. The liver, spleen and pancreas are
also to be carefully and increasingly stimulat-
ed, using at first the large disk applicator, if
at hand, and following later on with a small-
er disk, the brush, or the ball.

Of course, the neurotic and neurasthenic
factor present in all these cases must not be
overlooked. No department of the human
organism is so complicated in structure or
so comprehensive in function as the nervous
system. In comparison all the other tissues
are coarse, crude and commonplace. Further-
more, in all the processes of the organism,
whether of growth, repair or decay, the
nerves are not merely conductors and con-
duits, they are factors. They do more than
to transmit impulses, they generate force,
they instigate control and inhibit motion, and
they also exercise sentient volition.

To restore the disordered nerves to nor-
mal function is not merely to repair the con-
necting wires of the battery, or rewind the
dynamo; since it is the chemical vibration
occurring between the elements of vital com-
bustion — carbon and oxygen — that energizes
and actuates the dynamo. Correspondingly,
it is vital vibration, radiating from nerve cen-
ters, that generates and dominates vital ac-
tion.

137

The heart may be likened to the cylinder
of the vital engine, the arteries answering to
the connecting rods and piston. The liver,
spleen, pancreas and kidneys are the regulat-
ing valves of the system, while the stomach
represents the firebox. But behind all these,
in every instance, and at all times, is the sen-
tient touch and subjective potentiality of
nerve force, the Leyden-jar discharge of all
animal organisms, that never intermits while
life remains; and this constitutes vital force*

In applying vibratory treatment to the
nervous system all its various subdivisions
must be kept in mind. Without entering in-
to any complex analysis, since this can be
found in any good work on neurology, the
principal subdivisions consist of the brain and
spinal cord, constituting the cerebro-spinal
system, the twelve pairs (Sommering) of
cranial nerves, the thirty-one pairs of spinal
nerves, the ganglionic system, and the
splanchnics. Bearing in mind the principles
already laid down in treating anemic and
neurasthenic conditions, each of these sys-
tems should receive careful attention, and
vibration should be applied with much cir-
cumspection, lest the debilitated or dormant
organs and nerve branches be over-stimulat-
ed and thereby fatigued. This precaution
has already been several times adverted to,
but is again repeated because of its import-
ance.

138

Beginning with light pressure and short or
medium stroke, the spinal centers which
more or less directly preside over the diges-
tive organs and the assimilative and elimina-
tive functions, are to be treated briefly but
daily for a week or a fortnight, after which
treatment every other day or twice a week
may be found sufficient. The violet ray and
an ocasional Turkish bath will prove valuable
auxiliaries.

Even in carcinoma, that not always incura-
ble scourge of the race, vibratory treatment
may be made an effective ally to other meas-
ures. The x-ray and radium are still being
used, and many instances of "cure" arc being
reported. The general profession, is yet skep-
tical as to these reports, insisting, as a rule,
that when "cure" actually results the diag-
nosis was unreliable. Lupus, epitheliomas
and some other manifestations are certainly
cured by a skillful use of the x-ray, and per-
haps we will have to admit, by radium. It
begins to look as though carcinoma proper
may ere long have to be added to the list.
Evidence to this effect is slowly accumulat-
ing, grows more and more credible, and may
eventually become indisputable. Whether the
agency invoked by the x-ray, violet ray or
radium, the action secured is a process of dis-
integration. These mysterious radiations de-
compose or break down morbid and malig-

139

nant tissues, and the resulting debris must be
properly and promptly eliminated before the
"cure" can be called complete. If this dis-
sociated materies morbi is slowly or imper-
perfectly eliminated resorption is certain to
occur, and the disease is promptly pronounc-
ed "recurrent."

Thorough stimulation of all the emunctor-
ies and eliminating organs, especially the
lymphatics, as previously urged, unquestion-
ably renders the other measures used more
prompt, certain and permanent in their ef-
fects. During such treatment every elimina-
tive outlet of the body should be kept open
and active, and to this end no agency belong-
ing to the physiologic group is more potent
for good than intelligently adapted mechano-
vital vibration.

It may be reiterated and further emphasiz-
ed that many cases of alleged failure of high-
frequency currents and radioactive emana-
tions, in the treatment of malignant growths,
is directly attributable to failure to secure the
prompt elimination of the detritus following
tissue disintegration. More thorough atten-
tion to this all-important item will undoubt-
edly increase by many fold, the percentage
of reported cures.

Stimulation is to be directed first to the
bowels, not with a view to direct elimination
of the dissociated cell elements, but to main-

140

tain the general system in the best possible
condition to fayor absorption and elimination
througl\ other channels. Second, the skin
and kidneys are to be kept at least normally
active, and lastly, the lymphatics can be
made to do yeoman duty in taking up and
disposing of the embers and ashes remaining
after the radio-chemical fires have done their
work. It is therefore quite plausible to as-
sume that many cases of reported failure of
these comparatively new agencies might have
been made successes, had this vital question
of elimination been sufficiently considered.

Gentle, very gentle vibration of even the
diseased appendix, and about the ileo-cecal
region, using an interposed fluid applicator,
is a perfectly safe procedure and would no
doubt frequently succeed in averting a
threatened explosion, by emptying the gorg-
ed and uneasy organ, either by relaxing its
outlet, liquefying its contents, or stimulating
absorption. The use of the fluid applicator
makes the operation not only painless but
even a source of comfort and relief to the pa-
tient.

In enlarged joints from the usual causes
vibratory treatment is always an efficient aid,
and will frequently prove the chief reliance.
In all these cases, if there be much tender-
ness, it is advisable to begin the treatment
with the soft rubber bell, or the brush, to

141

be followed later by solid, concave-disk ap-
plicators. As already, but not too frequently
insisted upon, in case of tumors and benign
or malignant growths, elimination must be
persistently maintained, more especially
through the medium of the neighboring lym-
phatics.

The local deposits and accretions that oc-
cur as a result of arthritis deformans can
frequently be dispersed and the joints made
more comfortable, as well as more supple.

Bursae that have been inflamed and after-
wards neglected until they have become cal-
cified and "as hard as bone," can be pain-
lessly broken down and permanently dis-
persed, after no more than a dozen or twenty
applications of any form of hard vibratode,
at intervals of two or three days, the lym-
phatics of the vicinity being at the same time
briskly and repeatedly stimulated.

If iodin or any other discutient is being
exhibited in these cases, vibration locally ap-
plied will promote its efficiency.

Rheumatic joints can be practically made
over, after the general system has been prop-
erly cared for and the rheumatic tendency
eliminated. If the salicylates, alkalies and
iodides are being used to eradicate the cause
of the disease, whatever that may be, their ac-
tion can be materially promoted by a resort
to systematic and persistent mechano-vital

vibration.

142

In neurasthenia it is well to precede active
vibratory applications by the use of the vio-
let ray. This ray or modality, as has been
already pointedly set forth, represents sim-
ply a highly attenuated form of vibration.
This high frequency of alternations renders it
capable of a more profound degree of seda-
tion than can be realized from the slower
modalities. Hence its rational and indicated
availability in neurotic conditions character-
ized by hyperesthesia of certain nerve cen-
ters or of the general nervous system. After
the morbid sensitiveness has been relieved
by suffusing the entire body, using the chair
attachment or auto condenser, the sympa-
thetic system and the splanchnics are to be
reached by labile applications, through flat-
tened glass bulb electrodes, and this treat-
ment is to be followed up by vibratory me-
chanical efBeurage. Avoiding bony projec-
tions and the spinous processes, the vibra-
tode is to be moved along each side of the
spine with firm pressure and at a high rate
of speed. With a proper form of applicator
the entire body can thus be carefully gone
over.

But no matter how thoroughly any treat-
ment may be conducted, the permanent cure
of neurasthenia must be sought principally
through nutrition. Draw upon all the vari-
ous means mentioned to make the patient

143

genuinely hungry; feed him liberally on thor-
oughly nerve-nourishing and unobstructing
food, and in time he will throw off his neu-
rotic dycrasia, return to paths of peace, sound
sleep and sane habits of thought and action.
Without this nutritional restoration there
will be no thorough or permanent improve-
ment. Toward such restoration mechano-
vital vibration discreetly and efficiently in-
voked supplies the two most needed factors
— sedation and stimulation.

Among the other special conditions amen-
able to vibratory treatment may be cited
obesity, hemorrhoids, varicose veins, pros-
tatic enlargement, fibroid tumors and impo-
tence. Each of these is to be treated accord-
ing to principles already laid down, and
details more particularly though briefly de-
scribed in alphabetical order further on.

Abscess

In the formative stage vibratory stimula-
tion of the adjacent lymphatics, with very
light superficial vibration over the site, or
swelling itself, will often cause the absorp-
tion of the threatened formation, or will at
least limit it in size and severity.

Achillod3aiia

Relax the tendon by gentle vibration, with
a soft rubber or chamois-covered disk appli-
cator, and vibrate the lower spinal centers.

144

Acromegaliy

Stimulate the absorbents and lymphatics o^
the parts affected and of all contiguous parts.
Use rubber ball, or chamois-covered disk,
with medium stroke, of high frequency.

Acrotism

Stimulate all the spinal ganglia, using ball
or convex surface applicator, and follow with
flat or concave disk applicator over the solar
plexus and splanchhics.

Adenalgia

Use rapid and vigorous superficial appli-
cations, with large concave disk over the af-
fected gland, and continue along the entire
trunk, anteriorly and posteriorly.

Adenoma

Repeat the treatment given for Abscess,
only more vigorously and more frequently.

Adenosarcoma

Much can be done to ameliorate the
growth, even when its dispersion can not be
effected. Vibration should always be used
in conjunction with x-ray or radium treat-
ment of all morbid growths whether benign
or malignant.
Adenosclerosis

Use vibration as directed for Adenoma.

Ad3mamia

Use gently stimulating applications, be-
ginning with general surface applications, by

145

means of the large concave disk applicator,
gradually increasing the pressure and pro-
longing the time employed. A short, but
very rapid stroke is best at the outset.

Agalactia

Gently stimulate the glands and tone up
the entire system, which must be provided
with a thoroughly digestible and nutritious
diet.

Agenosmia

After thorough stimulation of all the spin-
al centers, devote special attention to those
along the lower spine, and gently apply vi-
bration to the parts themselves. In marked
cases, in which the organ is much under size
a long glass tube used as a cupping glass
of a size to enclose the entire organ, while
suction is applied to the tube by means of an
air pump or rubber bulb, so as to exhaust
the air, will generally succeed in temporarily
or permanently enlarging the shrunken oi
under-developed organ.

Agrypnia

Seek out any existing sensitive points
along the spine and treat them until they
are no longer hyperesthetic. The large disk
applied to nearly all parts of the body, in
stabile fashion, renders excellent service. It
is very soothing and can be made decidedly
sedative.

146

Ague

In latent and chronic malarial poisoning,
general vibration will greatly aid other re-
medial measures. Apply on general princi-
ples, giving special attention to the liver and
spleen.

Akinesia

Treat the spinal centers with high-fre-
quency stroke and gentle pressure, gradually
increased. Make local stimulating applica-
tions to special muscles involved.

Alalia

Stimulate the cervical and upper dorsal
ganglia and make local application^ to the
neck, both front and sides; also over the
speech centers of the brain, and along the
course of the cranial nerves involved.

Albuminuria

All the emunctories may be so stimulated
as to relieve the failing organs, and this treat-
ment is said to occasionally succeed in arrest-
ing the degenerative process. It should have
further trial.

Allesthesia

This generally yields to soothing vibratory
treatment. Apply on general principles, and
to suit the varying conditions of each case.

Alopecia

When the hair bulbs are still alive but the
circulation in the scalp is weak and imper-

147

feet, vibratory stimulation of the scalp, an-
terior cervical region, and of the cervical
ganglia, in conjunction with a thoroughly
nourishing diet, the avoidance of tight hat-
bands, and the daily or triweekly use of an
inunction of cocoa butter, white vaseline, or,
best of all, a good sulphur cream, will do
much to restore the growth and health of
the hair. Add a weekly shampoo with a good
tar soap.

Amblyopia

Apply stimulating vibratory treatment to
the cervical ganglia, especially to the third,
and als^ over the Gasserian ganglion. Care-
ful pneuma-massage applied to the eye itself
may be added, also the use of the fluid appli-
cator.

Amenorrhea

First, correct the physical causes, such as
anemia, anatomical displacements, etc., for
which purpose vibratory applications will af-
ford much aid. The dorsal ganglia are usu-
ally involved, and sensitive points will be
found along the lower spine.

This condition is usually accompanied by
chronic constipation and a sluggish condition
of all the vital organs and emunctories. When
these are carefully looked after, moderately
deep applications to the dorsal centers, and
gentle vibration through a fluid applicator,

1A?>

over the ovaries, will be followed by relief
that is usually more than temporary.
Anemia

See under this head on page 132 of the body
of the work.
Angina Pectoris

Use deep applications along the spine, from
as high up as the sixth cervical and down to
the lower dorsal ganglia. Correct any ana-
tomical deviations, such as incurved ribs, de-
pressed clavicle, etc., that may be found.
Contracted muscles may be the cause of these
displacements, and must be relaxed by appro-
priate vibratory applications.
Angioma

This condition may be benefited by gentle
vibratory applications, the fluid applicator be-
ing the safest, and decidedly appropriate.
Angiosarcoma

Vibration discreetly applied to the con-
tiguous surfaces, including all the neighbor-
ing lymphatics, will give good account of it-
self.
Ankylosis

See remarks on pages 141 and 142 of this
work.
Anorexia

General systemic vibratory treatment, us-
ing the ball applicator and deep pressure,
over the spinal ganglia, with superficial but
rapid stroke over the solar plexus and the
entire abdominal region.
149

Anosmia

Vibrate the anterior cervical region, using
the brush, or a soft rubber, bell-shaped vibra-
tode. Introduce one made of glass, hard
rubber or metal, properly shaped, and vibrate
the base of the tongue.

A small fluid applicator may be introduced
into the mouth and applied to the roof and
sides.

Anuria

Use deep vibration over the spinal ganglia
controlling the kidneys, at the same time pre-
scribing copious water-drinking, preferably
distilled v^ater. Add a full hot bath.

Apnea

Stimulate the pneumogastrics and after-
wards, in succession, all the spinal centers.

Appendicitis (incipient)

Stimulate the colon by deep but careful
applications. Over an area six inches in di-
ameter, gently apply fluid vibration, gradu-
ally increasing the pressure, until the large
concave disk can be substituted without caus-
ing pain. Stimulate all the contiguous lym-
phatics, and arouse both the liver and spleen
to vigorous duty. By deft manipulations the
appendix can often be relaxed and perhaps
finally emptied, after which the inflammatory
action will subside for want of a cause.

The lower spinal ganglia are to be stimu-
lated.

ISO

Arthritis

In the acute stage other treatment can be
much facilitated by using vibration, the ap-
plications being made in the vicinity of the
joint and over contiguous lymphatics.

A fluid applicator may be used with very
light stroke, over the joint itself, except when
it causes severe pain.

Asthenia

Stimulate all the spinal ganglia as well as
the liver, stomach, spleen and bowels. In-
clude the solar plexus and the splanchnics.
and above all things place the patient on a
thoroughly nourishing and non-obstructing
diet.

Asthma

Some forms of this distressing malady arc
amenable to rational treatment, toward
which intelligently applied mechano-vital vi-
bration contributes definite and valuable aid.
Cases of organic origin and those with serious
complications, such as emphysema, cardiac
disease, chronic renal disease, etc., will be only
temporarily benefited. Any spasmodic par-
oxysm may be more or less ameliorated.
Cases of neurotic and uncomplicated origin
can be more decidedly and more permanently
relieved.

First of all, see that the patient's diet and
digestion are what they should be. Many
asthmatics are victims of sundry unhygienic

151

habits, chief among which is a diet that im-
perfectly nourishes while it seriously ob-
structs the alimentary canal, sorely tries the
assimilative functions, and surcharges the
system with uric acid.

Do not attempt the treatment of these
cases without readjusting all faulty feeding
habits. Insist upon a rigid reformation in
this respect, or else decline to prescribe.

Having thoroughly looked after the gen-
eral condition of the patient, begin vibratory
treatment by applying the ball vibratode over
the third and fourth dorsal centers. At the
outset use moderate pressure, but increase
its force gradually as pain and sensitiveness
diminish. Stimulate the entire dorsal re-
gion, as well as the pneumogastrics and the
solar plexus. Apply the large concave disk
over the entire thorax, and apply it with la-
bile, stroking motion over the whole length
of the dorsun;!.

It may sometimes be found that the asth-
ma is primarily caused by an incurved or dis-
placed rib. This or any other anatomical
deviation must first be corrected.

Ataxia

Brilliant results usually follow a discreet
and vigorous resort to vibration in this here-
tofore intractable malady. Apply on general
principles already sufficiently described.

Applications must be general and thor-

ough, and here again, the diet must be
searchingly corrected. These patients are
generally only half nourished, although they
may constantly eat voraciously of unsatisfy-
ing or improper food. They need iron, sul-
phur and the phosphates. They need oxy-
gen and outdoor living, — ^and they need all the
aid that can be realized from mechano-vital
stimulation.

Apply first to the dorsal and later to the
lumbar centers. Follow down the limbs, in-
creasing the pressure and prolonging the
time. Using the large concave applicator or
the brush, follow the course of every princi-
pal muscle from origin to insertion, with
moderately firm but rapid stroke. Make each
seance a short one until the lax muscles im-
prove in tonicity, since such muscles are eas-
ily fatigued. The violet ray is a powerful
and indispensable adjunct in all these cases.

Atrichiasis

As stated under "Alopecia," if the hair
bulbs are still alive, vibration can be made
the most effective stimulant to their growth,
and if discreetly conjoined with other appro-
priate treatment will prove of more perma-
nent value than any of the usual skin irri-
tants based on cantharides and so-called "hair
tonics." Deep vibration of the cervical and
first dorsal centers will stimulate the blood-
supply of the scalp. A good sulphur cream

153

(Jackson's formula) is one of the best local
applications. It should be well rubbed in
with the finger tips, just after the vibratory
treatment. Follow with a weekly or semi-
weekly shampoo, using a good tar soap.
Azoospermia

Vigorous stimulation of all the spinal cen-
ters, with a prescribed diet rich in phosphates
and other vital elements, and a few applica-
tions to the prostate gland, per rectum and
through the perineum, will do much toward
overcoming this vital defection.
Blennorrhea

To other indicated measures add stimula-
tion of the lower dorsal centers and in fact
of all the lower spinal centers. Stimulate
also the lymphatics of the groin and inner
thigh. At the same time do not neglect to
thoroughly arouse the liver, spleen and as-
similative organs.
Blepharoptosis

Use vigorous but not prolonged vibration
over the third cervical ganglia. Also use a
small soft-rubber bell with stroking motion,
or fluid vibration, applied directly to the
drooping lid, and over the superciliary ridge.
Blepharospasm

Use the same treatment as for blepharop-
tosis, carrying the stroking motion around
the eye, making quite firm pressure over the
supra-orbital region.

154

Brachialgia

Treat the spinal centers that send branches
to the arm. Use the brush, covered disk, or
the curved arm vibratode along the course
of the trunk nerves of the arm. Also feed
the patient. Neuraglia is a cry of hunger
from starved nerves. The patient's svstem
needs fats and the mineral elements, iron,
phosphorus, sulphur, etc. Ten to one his liv-
er is torpid, spleen congested and bowels
sluggish. Correct all these conditions, by ap-
propriate treatment.

Brain-fag

Soothe and then stimulate all the vital or-
gans, and invigorate all the functions Vi-
brate the lower extremities, even to the
soles of the feet.

Bronchitis

Stimulate all the cervical and three or four
of the dorsal centers. Superficial vibration
over the entire chest, using the large con-
cave disk, will decidedly accelerate and com-
plement other measures. When conjoined
with vibratory stimulation, the violet ray
gives excellent results in this disease. The
course of the pneumogastrics is to be fol-
lowed, in making other applications.

Bronchocele

The treatment of this disease calls for both
local and general applications. The former

155

are more important and generally give very
prompt and decided results.

After applying local treatment with some
thoroughness and as much force as the pa-
tient will endure without complaint^ stimulate
the lymphatics of the cervical and axillary
regions, using the large concave disk. In
the exophthalmic variety the same general
principles obtain. When the thyroid is great-
ly enlarged it will aid the good effects of vi-
bration to use the following lotion: 9 Tr.
lodinii (double strength) 4 parts; Fluid Ext.
Lobel. Infl. 2 parts; Glycerin, 1 part. Sig.
Apply to the gland, once a day, with a cam-
el's hair brush, before and after vibration.

Bursae

These troublesome affairs when abnormal-
ly enlarged, inflamed and changed in charac-
ter, may often be reduced by a series of
vibratory applications, chiefly to the growth
itself, but secondarily to neighboring lym-
phatics.
Calcification, (tissue)

Mechanical vibration can be relied upon to
disperse these deposits, when they occur in
accessible locations. Use a small disk vibra-
tode, or one of proper shape to fit the part.
At first it may be desirable to cover the ap-
plicator with rubber or chamois skin. The
applications are to be repeated daily until
there is some tenderness, then less frequent-

156

ly, until the deposit is softened and absorbed.
As in all similar cases the lymphatics in the
vicinity are to be systematically stimulated.

Carbuncle

This painful lesion is always a concomitant
of a run-down condition of the system. Vi-
bration can be made an effective aid to other
appropriate treatment. Treat the system
generally, and also apply superficially in the
vicinity of the ulcer. Keep the latter covered
with a thick compress of absorbent cotton,
saturated with dioxogen, (hydrogen dioxid).

Carcinoxiia

When treating this dread disease with the
x-ray or radio-activity, as already set forth,
vibratory stimulation renders material aid, by
rousing the absorbents and emunctories, so
that broken-down cells — the debris of the dis-
solved growth — are promptly eliminated.
Tone up the general system through the
spinal centers, solar plexus and splanchnics,
and persistently stimulate the axillary and
other lymphatics.

Catalepsy

Alternately deep and shallow vibratory ap-
plications may be tried along the entire
spine.

Cataract

When this results from a debilitated con-
dition of the general system, causing a de-

157

gree of starvation of the lens, this condition
can usually be retarded, if not entiiely dissi-
pated, by mechanical vibration of a general
character, and by pneuma-massage of the
eyeball itself. Special attention should be
given to the third cervical and first three
dorsal centers. For this work a vibrator
provided writh a pneuma-massage attachment
is needed. Fluid vibration may be used in
the absence of pneuma-massage.

The treatment must be gentle, but should
be persistently applied for many months.
Cephalalgia

Many varieties of headache may be
promptly relieved by light rapid vibration of
the scalp, especially in the parietal and mas-
toid regions, and over the nape of the neck.
Of course the general systemic condition and
the dietary are to be looked after, in order
to obtain permanent results.
Chilblain

Light vibration over the inflamed surfaces,
and stimulation of the nearby absorbents will
sometimes be sufficient, without the aid of
other measures.
Chlorosis

This is but an aggravated form, or else a
concomitant of anemia, which see.
Chorditis

Vibrate the throat and behind the rami,
using the brush or small, smooth, disk ap-

158

plicators.

Chorea

Vigorously vibrate the several centers as-
sociated with the affected areas — usually the
cervical and upper dorsal.

If the lower extremities are involved the
applications should include the lower spinal
centers.

Cirrhosis of the Liver

This may be ameliorated and in incipient
cases cured by a carefully adapted vibratory
treatment. Use the large concave disk, gent-
ly at first, over the organ itself, stimulate
all the other vital organs, and the spinal
ganglia, and by all means correct the always
faulty diet and relieve any phase of indi-
gestion that may be present.
Climacteric

Much can be done to alleviate the various
accompaniments of this critical epoch.

Treat the entire organism on general prin-
ciples, correcting any hygienic or dietetic
vices that may be present, soothe perturbed
organs and functions, and stimulate any that
may be sluggish.

Superficial rather than deep applications
will be required, using large, covered, or the
brush vibratodes, and varying the applications
to meet the changing symptoms as they occur.
Coccygodynia

This painful condition is to be treated in
the main like other forms of neuralgia. It is

159

a very frequent concomitant of chronic con-
stipation. This must be relieved before any
treatment can be made effective or perma-
nent. When constipation has been over-
come, careful vibratory applications to the
lower spinal and coccygeal centers will re-
lieve the pain and generally restore a normal
condition of the parts.

The condition of the coccyx itself must not
be overlooked. It may be displaced or slight-
ly deformed, so as to cause pressure on some
nerve filament. Any such accident must be
corrected.

Colitis

When of the mucous type, colitis is amen-
able to vibratory treatment, which is to be
applied up and down the lower spine and by
means of either large covered disks or fluid
applicators, over the abdomen itself. Discre-
tion must be used or the condition may be
aggravated. The diet must be bland and eas-
ily digested.

Coma Vigil

When this occurs as a sequel of some se-
rious disease it calls for a careful adjustment
of therapeutic mechanical vibration, as a val-
uable aid to other measures. Begin with
very gently stimulating applications along
the entire length of the spine, using short,
rapid stroke, and large disk or covered vibra-
todes. Do no deep work until some degree
160

of recuperation is manifest^ after which more
vigorous applications will be of advantage.
Beware of overdoing the work. Muscles and
nerves alike, in these cases, are so wanting
in vitality that they are easily fatigued and
even permanently injured.

Comedones

These occur in subjects who are lacking in
constitutional vigor. After attending to the
general health, and especially the nutritive
function, vibratory massage of the face or
other affected region will stimulate the folli-
cles to more perfect eliminative action. An
occasional application of the tincture of green
soap, followed by very hot water and vigor-
ous rubbing, will render efficient aid, and is
often indispensable to complete success.

Constipation

It has been already set forth that constipa-
tion is the bane of the Anglo-American race.
Its treatment has been quite fully outlined in
the preceding pages. Once the diet has been
made unobstructing, and copious water-
drinking enjoined, mechanical vibration is
the most rational treatment yet devised, and
gives the most natural and permanent results.
It restores the general system, as well as the
normal tone of the intestinal tract, promotes
peristalsis, and unloads the sluggish colon.

By most authors on vibration, the use of
the long intrarectal applicator is recom-
i6i

mended. If the diet is so thoroughly re-
formed as to be non-constipating, there will
be little occasion for the use of any internal
applicator. The concave, or small flat disk,
or the ball, applied progressively from the
head of the colon to its terminal in the rec-
tum, together writh regular stimulation of the
spinal centers associated with the intestinal
apparatus, will prove sufficient in a large ma-
jority of cases. Without eternal viligance in
relation to the diet of those who have be-
come of constipated habit, no measure will
give permanent relief. Dilate the sphincter.

Convulsions

These arise from such a variety of causes
that no routine treatment can be prescribed.
The cause must be carefully sought, and if
possible removed. Inhibitory vibration may
be tried, to break up a paroxysm, and will
frequently succeed better than chloral, chlor-
oform or the bromides.

Corpulence, See also Obesity

This can be more or less reduced by a rea-
sonable restriction of the diet and vigorous
stimulation of all the emunctories and ab-
sorbents, including the entire lymphatic sys-
tem.

Proscribe the taking of water or other
fluids for an hour before and two hours after
eating. Prolonged cold baths, especially cold
swimming baths, assist, and as a matter of

162

course, active physical exercise is usually an
essential while undergoing treatment.

Coryza

Use deep vibration over the upper spinal
centers, from the atlas down to about the
middle dorsal region. With light stroke vi-
brate the sides and front of the neck, and use
a properly adapted applicator over the fron-
tal sinuses and about the root of the nose.

Stimulate the lymphatics of the cervical
and axillary regions and repeat the applica-
tions over the sinuses, using increased pres-
sure.

Coxalgia
See Coccygodynia

Croup

When it can be made instantly available
vibratory applications that have a "tendency
to relax over-tense structures and organs
may be found to be of much advantage,
either in connection with or in the absence
of other measures. Apply along the upper
spine, to the sides and front of the neck and
to the entire thorax. The full hot bath and
hot fomentations are not to be neglected.

Cyanosis

General and special vibration will be found
of great service in restoring the disturbed
circulation. Rules governing applications will
suggest themselves.

163

C3r8toiiui

If of dermoid character, a cystoma may be
dispersed by vibration applied to the tumor
itself, and to adjacent lymphatics. If the
growth is sensitive at the outset, or become^
so under treatment, use fluid vibration, or
soft-faced vibratodes.

Degeneration

When certain retrograde changes occur in
any particular tissue of the body the result is
usually denominated degeneration. Tliere
are many varieties, as, granular, fatty, amy-
loid, hyalin, colloid, mucoid, fibroid, pigmen-
tary, calcareous, neuroid, etc., according to
the part affected, or according to resulting
products.

Some of the degenerative involvements
are very serious, as for instance, tabes, ma-
rasmus, tuberculosis, etc. To combat them
taxes the ingenuity of the astutest therapeu-
tist.

Mechano-vital vibration comes to the res-
cue with reassuring promise of substantial
and fundamental aid in many of these cases
that have hitherto seemed hopeless as to
cure, and steadily progressive as to the final
outcome.

The first step is to make the diet and di-
gestion as nearly normal as possible. No
pains should be spared in this direction. The
diet must be thoroughly supporting, and at

164

the same time non-obstructing. When a
proper regimen has been established, vibra-
tory treatment is to be resorted to with vigor
and persistency. Many of the spinal centers
will be found either morbidly lacking in sen-
sitiveness, or hyperesthetic. They must be
gradually restored to a normal condition.
This may require weeks, or even months, ac-
cording to the stage at which the treatment
is invoked.

No set rules can be formulated, since no
two cases will present identical symptoms
and conditions. Gradual improvement will
follow a course of intelligently adapted vibra-
tory applications, — generally to the spinal
ganglia, and locally to the parts affected.
Dementia

Some forms of this condition can be greatly
improved by a course of vibratory applica-
tions, addressed chiefly to the spinal centers,
the solar plexus, and the splanchnics.

The practitioner must exercise all his in-
genuity in exhibiting the remedy.

Diabetes Mellitus

This disease has been generally considered
incurable and only amenable to ameliora-
ton, through dietetic measures. Of course,
this is not cure, and any measure that prom-
ises better results will be considered a boon
to hundreds of thousands of suffering mor-
tals.

165

Mechano-vital vibration, developed to its
utmost capacity, is at present one of the
most promising measures. By utmost ca-
pacity, is meant all the high frequency mo-
dalities of vibration, which includes the violet
ray.

The chair attachment or autocondenser, re-
ferred to in previous pages, promises to be
a valuable acquisition in the treatment of all
the dyscrasiae, including diabetes.

The D'Arsonval current is to be used in
connection with this device, and a seance
of ten to fifteen minutes, according to the
susceptibility of the patient, repeated daily
for a month or more, after which it may be
given at longer intervals.

The dietetic part of the treatment is not
to be neglected, but need not be so rigid as
is deemed necessary when vibratory treat-
ment is not available. At the same time, and
throughout the treatment, mechano-vital vi-
bration is to be systematically applied and
carefully adapted to the general conditions
present in each case.

The liver, pancreas and spleen are to be
vigorously stimulated, also all the spinal cen-
ters, as low as the fifth lumbar.

Diarrhoea

Those who have given little thought to
the philosophy of mechanical vibration will
be somewhat surprised when told that this

i66

PLATE VII.

Fig. 17. Fluid Two-Way Vaginal Applicator.
FIr. 18. .Attachment for Operating Same.

measure can be made quite effective in all
forms of uncomplicated diarrhoea, character-
ized by profuse liquid stools and increased
peristalsis. Not all varieties are amenable
to this treatment, but it may be made
an auxiliary of much value in nearly every
variety.

There will generally be found sensitive
points along the spine. These should re-
ceive careful attention. Applications should
also be made over the site of the abdominal
sympathetics, using either the fluid vibratode,
or the large disk, convex in shape and cham-
ois-covered.

Necessarily the diet must be regulated, to-
tal absence from food for a time being es-
sential.

Dysmenorrhea

When there are sensitive points along the
spine, these are to be first treated. Some-
times prolonged applications are necessary,
and when this condition becomes habitual it
IS good practice to treat the case by general
spinal applications ten days before each pe-
riod. The general health is always at fault
when dysmenorrhea is present, and this fact
must never be overlooked. Look to the diet,
the state of the nerves, and the hygienic
habits.

167

Eczema

Mechano-vital vibration will greatly aid in
permanently relieving this distressing and
persistent affection.

Restrict the diet as to the excessive use of
nitrogenous foods, prescribing a regimen as
nearly uric-acid free as possible. Then aim
to correct the constitutional condition by
every available means. Stimulate the lym-
phatics, not only in the vicinity of the diseased
surfaces but of the entire system. When the
circulation can be brought to the normal,
and all the tissues to a condition representing
physiologic par, the effectiveness of other ap-
proved remedies will be greatly enhanced.
Kretol has proved one of the best local ap-
plications thus far used by the writer. The
oxygen-rich powder called "dermogen" has
also acquired considerable repute at the hands
of several practitioners.

Epflepsy

Some writers on vibratory therapeutics
teach that this disease usually depends upon
anatomical deformities and displacements.
There is practically very little in this claim,
and, as a rule only temporary amelioration
can be accomplished.

The epileptic is generally a gross feeder,

and his condition can almost invariably be

bettered by restricting him to an unobstruct-

ing, uric-acid-free and unstimulating dietary.

i68

Mechanical vibration may be profitably in-
voked to bring about an equilibrium of cir-
culatory and nervous processes, and to im-
prove the digestion. This will aid any other
measures that may be found promising,
whether they be medical or surgical.

Facial Atrophy

Mechanical vibration is a powerful weap-
on with which to combat this distressful les-
ion, which is much more common in women
than in men.

Make moderately vigorous applications
with a properly shaped, rubber, chamois or
gfauze-covered vibratode, over the site of the
degenerative change and also to the sides and
front of the neck. Stimulate the upper spin-
al ganglia, look well to the general health
and thorough nourishment of the patient. In-
unctions of olive oil, cocoa butter or a good
cold cream will afford auxiliary aid

Facial Paralysis— -Bell's palsy

Brisk vibration of the various available
points along the course of the fifth nerve,
using light but rapid stroke, with such other
systemic treatment as seems indicated, will
usually relieve this spasmodic trouble.

Fatigue

The general fatigue that follows overwork
and over-worry, especially when such work
and worry are chiefly mental in character,

169

can be very pleasantly relieved by gentle
mechano- vital vibration. Use the large disk
applicator briefly, with short, rapid stroke,
over the entire body and limbs. The patient
will be inclined to remain motionless on the
couch, and may beg to be permitted to go to
sleep. The effort should be to make the ap-
plications sedative in character. The patient
should be prone, and the outer clothing re-
moved. If the tendency to sleep be indulged,
a blanket should be thrown over the patient.

Fatty Degeneration

The tendency to this morbid condition can
be corrected by correcting a faulty diet and
applying general mechanical vibration, us-
ing discretion as to stroke, pressure and the
length of each seance.

The spinal centers, one and all, are to be
brought up to normal activity, and any par-
ticular organ or gland that may be found
involved, gently but persistently invigorated,
by daily or tri-weekly stimulating applica-
tions. The lymphatic system is to receive
careful attention.

Fibroid Degeneration, or Fibrosis

This process requires treatment similar to
that advised for fatty degeneration. The
only difference is that it may be made some-
what more vigorous. Fluid applicators are
very necessary in case of the treatment of
abdominal and hypersensitive tumors.

170

Flatulence

Restrict the consumption of carbohydrates
in the dietary, and then stimulate the spinal
centers, from the fourth cervical to the sac-
rum. Follow this with stimulating applica-
tions over the stomach, and along the entire
intestinal tract. Constipation and a sluggish
digestion are two of the principal causes, and
these must be corrected.

Friederich's Ataxia

Improve the general health by means al-
ready many times adverted to, and use sys-
tematic and persistent vibration all along the
spine, beginning with short and superficial,
but ending with prolonged and profound ap-
plications.

This condition calls for the exercise of alert
judgment.

Furunculus

Vibratory stimulation of the contiguous
lymphatics will usually curtail the course of
these painful and bothersome manifestations.
Small doses of calcium sulphid will facilitate
the cure of the "boil habit."

Gail-Stones

The passage of the calculi can be facilitated
by judiciously adapted mechanical vibration.
Use a soft applicator over the site of the liver,
gradually increasing the pressure until the
duct relaxes and the stones pass.

171

Ganglion

See remarks under Bursae.

Vibration easily takes the place of the tra-
ditional blow with a paddle or other solid sub-
stance, a good instrument being capable of
striking 5,000 to 9,000 or more blows per
minute.

Gastrodynia

This form of neuralgia is directly amen-
able to vibratory treatment, which should in-
clude deep vibration over the dorsal ganglia,
chiefly of the left side, and witlj short stroke
and firm pressure over the epigastrium. Also
use the large, concave disk applicator, with
labile stroke, leading from the left dorsal
centers outward, so as to cover all the space
between the spine and the median line in
front. The cause must be investigated, and
if possible, removed.

Gastroptosis

Holzknecht, of Vienna, after a large num-
ber of observations made by means of the
fluoroscope, after filling the stomach with
food mixed with subnitrate of bismuth, seems
to have established the fact that 80 per cent
of adult stomachs are more or less prolapsed,
so that they do not occupy the horizontal po-
sition in which they are found in the cadaver
and at laparotomies. Dilatation is undoubt-
edly the predominating cause, and dilatation
' almost invariable prelude to gastropto-
172

sis. Mechanical vibration can be made to
efficiently .second other measures in the
treatment of this condition.

Stimulate the sympathetic system and the
dorsal centers. The large concave disk is to
be used over the prolapsed organ to give it
tone. The diet is to be looked after, sufferers
from this condition generally being the vic-
tims of amylaceous dyspepsia. Restrict the
ingestion of starch-foods, and correct the
habit of ingesting too much fluid with or
near the meals.

General Paralysis

This condition is usually progressive, as-
sociated with some form of insanity, and
not generally considered amenable to any
known treatment.

If taken in its incipiency, the patient placed
upon an ideal diet and subjected to careful
hygienic, psychic *and environmental 'influ-
ences, mechanical vibratory therapeutics of-
fers a ray of hope. All the resources of the
treatment are to be invoked and each modal-
ity adapted with wise judgment and consum-
mate tact. The new hot and cold water
mattress may here prove a valuable adjunct.
Glycosuria

See Diabetes Mellitus.

Goiter

See Bronchocele.

^7Z

Gout

Conjoined with a vigorous reformation in
the dietetic and drinking habits, and with sys-
tematic indulgence in physical exercise in
the open air, mechanical vibration will great-
ly assist in dispersing the deposits about the
joints.

Stimulating the eliminative organs and the
lymphatics will accelerate the elimination of
the morbid by products of digestion which
compose the materies morbi. The spinal
centers from the atlas to the coccyx, the liver,
spleen, pancreas and intestinal tract shoutd
all be put in the best condition for doing
their normal work. Flexion and extension of
all the affected joints should be persistently
practised.
Hair, Diseases of

See Alopecia.
Hay Fever

Vibration is capable of rendering valuable
aid to the treatment of this distressing dis-
ease. Since the causes are usually tinlike, and no
two subjects equally susceptible to remedial
agencies, no set rules can be laid down.

Stimulate the spinal centers that influence
the respiratory tract, especially the post-nas-
al mucous membrane and the turbinated bod-
ies.

Correct all the faulty bodily habits. Give
the patient a change of environment when

174

this is feasible, and in general invigorate all
the vital functions. The diet is to be made
non-stimulating and non-obstructing.

Headache

See under Cephalalgia.

Head-nodding of Infants

Treat the general system and gently stimu-
late all the spinal ganglia, more especially the
upper cervical. Every favorable dietetic and
hygienic influence should be invoked.

Hearing — Disorders of

As these are mostly symptomatic of ab-
normal conditions in some part of the sys-
tem, the latter should be searched out and as
far as possible, corrected. This having been
done, thorough vibration over the mastoid
region, the sides of the neck, and over the
upper cervical ganglia, will sometimes give
brilliant results. Aided by the use of the
violet ray, administered through a properly
shaped, and lead-glass protected vacuum
tube, with occasional applications of the uni-
polar, localized x-ray, many cases of defect-
ive or lost hearing may be partially or wholly
restored. Of course, organic defects will not
thus be overcome.

Heart — Diseases of

Mechanical vibration is available in the
treatment of various functional disturbances
and some diseases of the cardiac apparatus,

175

such as displacements, fatty degeneration,
arythmic action, when not of organic origin,
anemic palpitation, etc., etc. The effects are
to be sought through equalization of the cir-
culation, regulation of the spinal innerva-
tion, and improvement of the general health.

In all these cases, digestive disturbances
are to be first corrected, and the system is to
be thoroughly nourished. Many hearts are
weak and easily fatigued, simply because
their muscle fibers, along with the entire
muscular system, are poorly fed and inade-
quately exercised. Vibration will tone the
cardiac muscles as it does other muscles.

In cardiac hypertrophy, vibration can be
relied on to definitely assist other measures,
by favoring equilibrium of all the vital func-
tions.

This is strictly in line with all real and
rational efforts to remove the cause of the
hypertrophy.

Passive congestion of the heart can be re-
lieved by vibratory applications, aimed at re-
storing the general circulation to a normal
condition.

Heartburn, or Cardialgia

This frequent and disagreeable concomit-
ant of various forms of indigestion can be re-
lieved by the same applications used to re-
store digestive tone.

176

Hemianesthesia

This is to be treated on the same general
principles laid down for the neuralgias, par-
alyses, etc.

Hemicrania

See Cephalalgia.

Hemiplegia

The spinal centers are to receive deep and
sometimes prolonged applications, using the
ball, or oval hard-rubber vibratodes. In ad
dition, the affected muscles are to be vigor-
ously stimulated, and every item of the gen-
eral hygiene attended to.

Hemophilia

Thus far nothing has proved of much valUe
in the treatment of this unfortunate and us-
ually inherited condition, except a general
betterment of the physiologic condition of the
subject. To favor such jbetterment, me-
chanical vibration, applied under the funda-
mental rules, already many times reiterated,
is a rational and promising measure. It will
co-operate with other measures directed to-
ward increasing the coagulability of the
blood, and the number or proportion of
white corpuscles.

Hemorrhoids

Internal piles promptly respond to vibra-
tory treatment. Applicators, to be used per
rectum, are made of soft or semi-hard rub-

"^77

ber, of metal, and of pure gum tubing filled
with water. The former varieties are easily
introduced while in motion. The fluid vibra-
todes are to be placed by means of a rectal
speculum, which is afterwards removed, leav-
ing the applicator in position.

The metal cone, used as a dilator of the
sphincters is a very effective applicator.

The diet and general health must be care-
fully regulated, especial effort being made to
prevent or overcome constipation, which is
one of the chief causative factors.

A very necessary precaution, which should
precede all treatment, is to see that the portal
circulation is normally and constantly free.
Hernia

Some incipient cases of hernia may be over-
come by discreet vibratory treatment applied
with a view to toning up the various muscular
layers involved. Each case will be a law
unto itself, calling for anatomical knowledge
and physical expertness on the part of the
operator.

Herpes Zoster

The standard works give little encourage-
ment as to the prospects from any form of
treatment of this painful complaint. The the-
ory that it is of nervous origin and always as-
sociated with more or less general debility
ought to be a sufficient indication that gen-
eral tonic treatment is indicated. Vibrate the
178

spinal ganglia, stimulate the liver, spieeii,
stomach and intestinal tract. Feed the pa-
tient with nourishing, and especially nerve-
nourishing food. Promote assimilation as
well as elimination. See that all the emunc-
tories are free and active.

Hiccough, Hiccup or Singultus

Free the stomach, if loaded, either by eme-
sis or catharsis. Then make deep applica-
tions over the dorsal ganglia, and, with the
large concave disk applicator, over the dia-
phragm.

Hiuxiy Venous

Treat the causative Anenua, which see.

Hydrothorax

Stimulate all the emunctories and especially
the axillary lymphatics. Applications, with
light stroke and large applicator over the site
of the effusion will assist in its removal.

Hyperesthesia

Treat with light, superficial applications
over the entire surface involved, and use
deeper stroke over the spinal ganglia.

Hyperplasia, Hypertrophy

These practically identical processes have
been sufficiently treated of in the 'body of
this volume.

Some hypertrophies are compensatory and
prophylactic. In these cases the condition

T79

against which they are directed should be
first removed if possible.
Hypochondriasis

This disease, often considered principally
of psychic origin, is generally based on some
definite physical cause. In nine cases out of
ten, the patient's digestive, assimilative and
eliminative functions are either sluggish or
disordered. Correct all these by measures al-
ready repeatedly described, and the morbid
mentality can then be restored by moral, so-
cial, physiologic and psychic influences.
Hypostasis

This may occur in any part of the body,
and can be very satisfactorily relieved by
vibratory applications adjusted so as to re-
store circulatory equilibrium.
Hysteria

This is another ailment that is dependent
upon definite physical causes rather than
upon whim and imagination. When its un-
derlying cause or causes have been located,
an intelligent adaptation of vibratory meas-
ures will directly and very positively aid in
restoring physical and psychic rhythm and
establishing equilibrium as to the "nerves
in disorder."
Hystero-Epilcpsy

The paroxysms may be much ameliorated,
if not entirely broken up, by spinal appli-
cations, pushed to the point of inhibition.

i8o

Immunity

Exemption from disease, as more fully set
forth in the body of this volume, is a matter
of the reinforcement of all the vital processes
and functions. Toward this end vibratory
therapeutics can be made to contribute its
full and rational complement. See remarks
under the appropriate chapter.
Impotency

Stimulate the dorsal and lumbar centers,
and tone up the entire system. The violet
ray, adniinistered, through the **auto-con-
denser'* elsewhere referred to, is an efficient
aid.

Local applications to the perineum will be
found of great value.

The diet should be rich in phosphatic and
nerve-fostering elements.
Indigestion

Enough has been said, under various heads,
on this important topic. See elsewhere.
Influenza

Stimulate all the spinal ganglia as well as
the lymphatics. Promote elimination by all
the emunctories, and make local applications
to the throat, sides of the nose, over the
frontal sinuses, and wherever they seem
called for.
Insanity

Some forms of insanity are dependent upon
anatomical divergencies that cause undue

i8i

pressure on some portion of the brain, cord
or special nerves. Vibration may be used
to advantage in eliminating this source of
the malady, and in restoring the general
health. Apply on general principles, and with
much discretion.

Intestinal Obstruction

This condition can frequently be overcome
by a careful adaptation of vibratory massage
applied to the abdomen. At the same time
stimulate the spinal centers involved. The
use of the long rectal applicator may prove
efficient.

Jaundice

This disease sometimes arises from de-
ranged innervation, but oftener from sup-
pressed hepatic functions. In both cases
stimulation of the dorsal centers of the right
side, with superficial applications over the
liver Itself, and to the entire abdominal re-
gion, will aid the other measures resorted to.

Joints, Diseases of

In no field of therapeutic endeavor is the
value of mechanical vibration more demon-
strable than in connection with diseased
and enlarged joints. It takes the place of
manual massage, accomplishing even more
than can be eflFected by the latter, in one-
tenth part of the time required by the most
expert masseur. Effusions can be dispersed,

182

adhesions broken up, and the general tone
of the tissues greatly improved.

The violet ray assists, and where there is
a suspicion of incipient bone disease the local-
ized unipolar x-ray may be occasionally used
with benefit.

Kidney, Movable

This accident or abnormality is too fre-
quently turned over to the tender mercy of
the surgeon's knife. Perhaps not all, but
many cases can be cured without resort to
this dreaded expedient.

Tone up all the abdominal muscles, and for
that matter the entire system.

Regulate the digestion; see that the pa-
tients — chiefly women — no longer continue
the use of corsets or other articles of cloth-
ing that compress the ribs, or in any way
interfere with the normal position and free-
dom of the abdominal contents.

Labio-glosso-Iaryngeal Paralysis

This form of paralysis rarely occurs ex-
cept in connection with senile degeneration of
some special nerve or nerve centers. Vig-
orous and persistent stimulation of all the
cervical ganglia, and applications addressed
to the sides and front of the neck, over the
mastoid regions, and sometimes within the
mouth and throat, conjoined with a similar
use of the violet ray, will at least retard the

183

progressive character of the lesion. Com-
plete recoveries may sometimes follow.

The patient should observe careful hygienic
habits, avoid all excesses and depressing
emotions, and live as far as possible a phy-
siologically sane and quiet life, preferably in
the country, and in a climate which invites
to outdoor living.'

Laryngitis

Vibration, with firm pressure, applied be-
hind the rami of the inferior maxillaries, and
deeply over the larynx, with general stimula-
tion of the upper cervical ganglia and the lym-
phatics of the neck, clavicular region and the
axillae, frequently acts like magic in disgorg-
ing the congested membranes, and thus re-
moving the immediate cause of hoarseness
and inflammation.

As in many other affections of this region
there is usually a well-grounded suspicion of
uric-acid poisoning, as an underlying cause.
Aspirin, in five to ten g^ain doses, frequently
repeated, is one of the recent and most val-
uable internal remedies for counteracting this
poison. The blood and secretions should be
made alkalin and kept so.

Leucorrhoea

To really cure this complaint, which is a
symptom rather than a disease, the general
system must be restored to normal tone. This
done, and any local cause having been fer-

reted out and corrected, the symptom will
either promptly or gradually subside.

Diet and hygiene are all-important. The
special vaginal fluid applicator may be found
of decided value, used intra-vaginse.

Liver, Functional Diseases of

For torpor of the liver nothing can take
the place of rightly-applied vibration, over
the entire hepatic and abdominal regions.
The large concave disk is to be used, with
short, rapid stroke. The associated dorsal
centers are to be stimulated, and all the bodily
habits, digestion, assimilation and elimina-
tion, thoroughly looked after.

Passive congestion of this organ is to be
treated in the same general way.

Locomotor Ataxia

This disease, proverbially looked upon as
incurable, unless- too far advanced, can now
be attacked with much more assurance. Vi-
bration and the violet ray have scored a few
quite satisfactorily authenticated successes.

The patient's general habits, environment,
social and psychic surroundings and physiol-
logic conditions are all to be scrutinized and
perhaps radically revolutionized. His diet is
to be made thoroughly supporting. The stat-
ic spray and violet ray, as evolved by the
static machine, or a good coil, are to be ap-
plied up and down the length of the spine and

185

at the sciatic notch, for a space of twenty
minutes, daily. This is to be followed by
moderately deep vibration over all the spinal
centers, after which, using the large disk vi-
bratode, with labile stroke, and moderately
firm pressure, go over all the vital organs,
liver, spleen, pancreas, stomach and abdom-
inal organs.

Progress may be slow, but in at least fifty
per cent of the cases improvement will soon
be manifest. Patience, persistence and tact
will be rewarded by more or less permanent
improvement.

Even when ultimate cure does not crown
the effort, the accompanying pains will be
mitigated, the gait improved, and control of
the sphincters restored.

The vibratory applications will give most
satisfactory results in those cases in which
cell-degeneration has not advanced beyond
the stage in which the cord as a whole is
susceptible to stimulation.
Lumbago, Lumbar Myalgia

Mechanical vibration relieves this painful
condition more promptly and satisfactorily
than perhaps any other form of treatment.

The applications are to be deep, and made
with rapid stroke, using the rubber ball, hard-
rubber or other suitable spinal vibratode,
over the entire lumbar region and the lower
dorsal centers.

^«5

When there is a hypersensitive condition
of the surface and the ball or spinal vibra-
tode is too painful to be tolerated, substitute
the large, concave disk, or the brush, until the
sensitiveness abates and other forms can be
tolerated.

Two to six applications are usually suffi-
cient, unless there be some unusual complica-
tion. Sodium salicylate and ammonium
chloride are sometimes eflfective aids.

Lungs, Congestion of

When of a passive nature and dependent
upon hypostasis and circulatory obstruction,
this condition can be much relieved by vi-
bratory applications directed toward equaliz-
ing the circulation and diverting the blood to
the extremities and other parts of the body.

Lungs, (Edema of

The same treatment as in congestion will
aid in relieving this frequently fatal condi-
tion.

Lymphadenoma

Stimulate all the spinal ganglia, and vibrate
with increasing vigor all the enlarged glands.

See elsewhere under the head of Adenoma.
Malignant Diseases

In all forms of malignant growths vibration
can be made a very valuable aid to other
measures. See elsewhere, under Carcinoma,
etc.

187

Mania

In addition to other approved measures
mechanical vibration can, when available, af-
ford some measure of relief. Apply to all
the spinal centers, and to any vital organ
that shows engorgement or sluggishness.
Megrim

See under Cephalalgia.
Melancholia

This neurosis is closely allied to Hypo-
chondriasiSy which see. Obstinate constipa-
tion is apt to be present and must be thor-
oughly corrected by measures already suf-
ficiently described.

Defective nourishment of both brain and
body must be overcome. Sometimes forced
feeding is necessary; but if the digestion be
energized, and the bowels kept entirely free,
the appetite will probably be a sufficient regu-
lator of the diet. Vibratory treatment is to
be directed toward bringing about the fore-
going changes, and its tactful administration
will tax the ingenuity of the practitioner. In
severe cases the vibratory water-bed may
eventually prove a desirable adjunct.
Meningitis, Cerebrospinal

See under Cerebrospinal, etc.

In institutions having tjiis device at com-
mand a resort to the hot and cold water vi-
brating mattress oflFers hope in the future
treatment of this fatal malady.
188

PLATE VIH.
Fig. 1&, riuid V.iiitiAl Applkatnr ^ith Attufrliineiit in tV^sitifm.

Aspirating the cord and the various at-
tempts at germicidal injections, lymphs, etc.,
have not yet given satisfactory results.

Menopause ^

See Climacteric.

Menorrhagia

Do not confuse this with Metrorrhagia,
since the two are quite distinct. Menorrha-
gia is excessive menstrual flow. Metrorrha-
gia is uterine hemorrhage, without refer-
ence to menstruation. The former should
receive attention between the periods, with a
view to toning up the general system. The
latter demands immediate treatment.

The first consideration in either condition
is to enjoin complete rest, which, in severe
cases, should be in the recumbent position.
To Jother approved measures for checking
hemorrhage add vibratory applications, mod-
erate in character and of short duration, over
the entire spinal region. Use the large con-
cave disk or the brush applicator, and follow
with the arm concave, or a small disk, up and
down the lower extremities, so as to divert
the blood to them. Of medicinal aids ergot,
hydrastis and hamamelis are least objection-
able and perhaps most effective.

Migrain
See Cephalalgia

189

Morton's Disease

This is a form of neuralgia affecting one
or more of the toes. Vibrate the offending
member on general principles, and follow up
along the course of the nerve supplying the
toe or toes.

Movable Kidney

See Kidney Movable

Multiple Neuritis

Begin the treatment by correcting all bad
hygienic habits and placing the patient on
a faultless diet. Vibration promises much in
this painful affection. Use the large disk,
or a covered applicator, gently, over all the
spinal centers, from the cervix to the coccyx.
If muscular atrophy threatens' or has already
set in, vibrate all the involved muscles. Fol-
low up the course of each painful nerve trunk,
and see that the nervous system is appropri-
ately nourished by means of iron, sulphur and
phosphorus-bearing foods.

Muscular Atrophy

Nothing is more efficient than mechani-
cal vibration in preventing and restoring this
form of degeneration. Make rapid but not
too deep applications to each of the muscles
and groups of muscles involved. See that the
patient is adequately nourished — not merely
fed.

TOO

Muscular Rheumatisin

Treat the spinal centers that radiate to the
involved structures, and make careful but
increasingly firm applications to the muscles
themselves. This treatment can usually be
made very effective.

Attend to the general health and all the
bodily ^habits. These patients are usually
badly fed, and nearly always victims of con-
stipation and the uric acid diathesis.

Myalgia

See the foregoing.

Myopathy

Bring the patient's nutrition to the highest
possible standard, and carefully stimulate the
failing muscles, as well as the heart, circula-
tory apparatus, and digestive organs.

Myzoedema

Profoundly and persistently stimulate the
cervical ganglia, extending the applications
from time to time to the entire spine. Make
moderate pressure at first, but increasingly
vigorous applications to the thyroid and to all
the contiguous lymphatics.

Invigorate all the vital functions and hasten
the general metabolism, by means of applica-
tions already repeatedly described.

Thyroid extracts have won considerable
repute in this disease. They probably do no
harm, even when they do no good.

191

Nausea

When arising from ordinary causes this
sensation can usually be relieved by moder-
ately deep vibration applied over the dorsal
ganglia of the left side.

Neuralgia

When a starved nerve finally rebels its pro-
test is called neuralgia. Discover the imme-
diate cause, if possible, and remove it. The
vital, underlying cause is ordinarily some
form of innutrition. The subject needs every-
thing sustaining that the diet kitchen can
give him, eggs, chops, butter, whole wheat
products, fats, milk, cream, — the phosphates,
iron, sulphur, nuclein, lecithin, etc. Bear in
mind, however, that there are many bogus
and worthless '"whole wheat'' preparations
in the market.

When these items have had due attention,
see that the emunctories are free, and that the
patient has pure air to breathe and pure
water to drink. Neuralgics are prone to re-
ject items of nutrition of which they stand
in most need, — for example, fats. They need
alimentation more than medication; and me-
chanical vibration will complement the phy-
siologic measures, so necessary in their
cases. The general and local applications ap-
propriate for these cases, no two of which
arc identical, have been amply described un-
v^ricms heads and need not be repeated.

192

Neurasthenia

This complicated neurosis is now treated by
enforced feeding, physical inertia, and manual
massage. One author-practitioner has made
a world-wide reputation on this somewhat
unique but entirely rational theory. Had
Wier-Mitchell realized the potency of me-
chanical vibration he. could have dispensed
with his professional masseurs and accom-
plished more by its aid in a fortnight, than
without it in four months. But therapeutic
advances come both slowly and singly. Thus
has come this later ally of the progressive
practitioner.

In the language of Snow, "Vibration in-
duces functional activity without the expendi-
ture of active energy on the part of the
patient." This makes it an ideal resource in
neurasthenic conditions. The patient must
not exercise but be exercised. He is to do
absolutely nothing to develop his muscles or
invigorate his functions, yet the former are to
be developed and the latter invigorated,
vicariously, by his attendant, assisted by a
little rhythmically running machinery.

In treating neurasthenia you will need to
use all your aptness and vigilance, as well as
all your vibratodes, to meet the various
symptoms and requirements as they arise.
No detailed rules need be repeated. The op-
erator must simply understand his patient's

193

needs and his instruments' capabilities. The
rest will be as easy as it is legitimate.
Nictitation

This affection can in most cases be over-
come by timely applications over the nerve
branches involved. In persistent cases vi-
brate the spinal ganglia and build up the gen-
eral system.
Obesity. See also Corpulence.

This is a perversion of nutrition, and any
radical cure will depend upon a correction of
this abnormal idiosyncrasy. This done, active
general vibration will greatly assist in induc-
ing absorption and elimination of the super-
abundant, half-formed tissue. Persist in the
treatment, and at the same time do not fail
to regulate the diet. Proscribe excessive use
of sugars and starches. Prescribe fruits, nuts
and vegetables, and interdict excessive use of
fluids, especially before, at and after meals.
A rather dry diet is preferable.
Occupation Diseases

Many of these, as the fatigue-neuroses, ny-
stagmus, writers' cramp, etc., etc., can be
radically cured by a faithful and intelligent
resort to vibratory therapeutics. Apply gen-
eral rules, and adapt the same to each case.
(Edema

Ordinarily oedema can be relieved by vibra-
tory applications, conjoined with other ap-
proved treatment.

194

Olfactory Anesthesia

Partial loss of the olfactory sense may be
decidedly helped by applications, made with
the small, soft-rubber bell, at the root of the
nose, on each side, over the frontal sinuses,
over the mastoid regions, and to the upper
cervical ganglia. The violet ray, applied by
means of properly shaped intra-nasal vacuum
electrodes, will make the treatment much
more efficient.
Optic Atrophy

See the body of this work, page 119.
Orthopnoea

Try stimulation of the spinal centers, more
particularly those of the dorsal region, using
a deep penetrating stroke, also stimulate the
pneumogastrics, the diaphragm, solar plexus
and abdominal muscles.
Ovarian Pain

Apply deep vibration to the lower dorsal
and lumbar centers. Superficial applications,
with the large disk, and with light pressure,
may be made directly over the affected organ.
Do not neglect the usual hot applications,
which, after vibration, will be more than
usually effective.
Pain in Visceral Disease

The pain accompanying diseases of any of
the viscera may be either one of three kinds :

1. Local, occurring directly at the seat of
the lesion or disturbance;

195

2. Referred, as to the nerve-terminal of
some nerve trunk implicated in the disease;

3. Reflex, as when painful impressions are
transmitted through sensory fibers of the
sympathetic to the peripheral endings of
nerve-fibers that enter the same segment.

This latter is true visceral, reflected pain.

The following figures, with the accompany-
ing explanations illustrate the importance of
a careful study of these reflected manifesta-
tions.

The accompanying plates, Nos. VII and VIII,
graphically illustrate the principal areas of
the body, in their relations to the spinal
ganglia. These relations are duplex. Thus,
(a), pain, hyperesthesia or anesthesia mani-
fested over one or more of these areas is
symptomatic of a disturbed or disordered con-
dition of the related or associated trophic
centers or spinal ganglia, (b) These areas
may be directly influenced and more or less
controlled by impressions addressed to the
related ganglia.

The various ganglia are definitely indicated
by the letters C, (cervical), D, (dorsal), L,
(lumbar), and Sac, (sacral).

With this brief key the plates are self-ex-
planatory.

These regionally illustrative cuts are, to the
vibrationist, important and instructive glides.
They help him both diagnostically and thera-

196

peutically. By means of them he can avoid
referring a pain to its wrong source, and thus
avoid the disappointment of employing wrong
therapeutic measures.

In a word, surface pains are by no means
uniform indications of surface disease or in-
jury. Rather, in a majority of cases they
are pathognomonic of visceral disturbances,
and the wise pathologist will not be misled
by a superficial examination. Having traced
the connection between the manifestation
and its source or cause he will be enabled to
make intelligent efforts toward its cure.

In treating pain in a general way several
methods must be kept in mind. Central ap-
plications will have in view either the seda-
tion or stimulation of the nerve centers in-
volved. Local applications will aim at quiet-
ing the peripheral ramifications of the same
nerves. The former will require deep or
moderately deep pressure, long stroke and
high frequency. The latter call for short
stroke and comparatively shallow pressure.
Spinal treatment must be discreetly applied
lest the trunk nerves be over-stimulated arid
thereby fatigued. It is better to do too little
than too much, thus gradually studying the
patient's susceptibility and endurance.

All the rules and suggestions heretofore
laid down are to be kept in mind.

197

Paralyses

These have already been frequently ad-
verted to.

For muscular paralysis no treatment could
be more effective or satisfactory than judi-
ciously administered mechanical vibration. It
must be applied according to the locality af-
fected, and no set rules can be laid down,
since every practitioner will formulate these
to meet the needs of each case as it presents.

In treating a particular muscle first stimu-
late its governing nerve center. Then begin
at its origin, with local applications, and trace
it to its insertion, and vice versa. Use cov-
ered disk, or the brush, at first, and later on
substitute firmer applicators, or the ball.

Prostration

This is the general name for the condition
which is otherwise described as collapse, de-
bility and exhaustion.

Apply the large disk over the entire body,
with gentle, gliding stroke and light pressure.
Mildly and briefly stimulate the spinal centers,
from the middle cervical down to the lower
dorsal. Prescribe a cup of hot malted milk
or bouillon as soon as the patient has had a
brief rest. Repeat in an hour or two if in-
dicated.

Ptosis, of Eyelid

Recent cases of this defection usually yield
to brisk stimulation of the third and fourth

198

cervical centers. Local applications may be
added, but they are of secondary importance.

In all these cases, toning up the entire
nervous and muscular systems constitutes a
wise and fundamental procedure. This is to
be done by methods already described.
Quinsy

See Tonsilitis
Raynaud's Disease

In the earlier stages vigorous resort to
mechanical vibration, in conjunction with all
the hygienic, dietetic and other constitutional *
measures, is always advisable. The methods
of application will vary with the peculiarities
of each case and only general rules can be
suggested. When the underlying cause can
be identified it must be radically combated by
diet, hygiene and every therapeutic measure
at command.

Judiciously applied vibratory stimulation is
worth more in this disease than all the drugs
in the pharmacopeia.
Reflex Neuroses

Study the source of these manifestations
and make applications accordingly. Vibra-
tion will often prove the most satisfactory
remedy. Consult the illustrations opposite
page 196.
Renal Calculus

Make deep, spinal applications, using the
ball or hard-rubber applicator, chiefly from

199

the lower dorsal to the fourth or fifth lumbar.
Use the large disk over the site of the kidneys
themselves, both posteriorly and anteriorly.
Free water-drinking and the use of hot air
baths, or other methods of inducing free
diaphoresis, will promote the effect of all
other measures.
Renal Hjrperemia

The same treatment as advised for Renal
Calculus is to be repeated, with such modifi*
cations as are rationally indicated.
Rheiunatism

For muscular rheumatism see Myalgia

For other forms see Arthritis
Sciatica

Deep applications, first, at the sciatic notch,
and then down the course of the nerve. Re-
peat with increased pressure and rapid stroke
until all the related muscles are thoroughly
relaxed, even fatigued, and the nerve itself
robbed of its hyperesthetic condition.

After the relaxation has been carried to the
extreme limit of the patient's tolerance, let
him recline on the edge of a firm couch or hard
mattress, and grasping the ankle of the af-
fected side firmly, flex the thigh upon the
body with as much force as possible, with a
view to stretch the nerve. Repeat the stretch-
ing process three or four times, after which
vibrate again, using light stroke and large
disk, or rubber-covered applicators.

200

The violet ray may be substituted for the
second vibratory application; or it may be
used in conjunction with vibration in every
case, with marked benefit.

Scoliosis

Determine by a careful examination what
muscles are contracted and which ones are
merely relaxed. Direct the applications so as
to relax those which are contracted. Correct
the deformity by manual manipulation, and
tone up the entire muscular system, as well
as the delinquent muscles. Feed the patient
on food that contains a goodly proportion of
the useful mineral elements, phosphorus,
iron, sulphur, soda, etc., etc. Secure and main-
tain an alkalin condition of the blood and
secretions.

Shock

This topic has been referred to in connec-
tion with the hot and cold water vibrating
mattress.

In every case the cause is to be considered,
before any rational treatment can be decided
upon.

In capital operations the mattress promises
to prevent the occurrence of Shock, and, as a
prophylactic, may prove more valuable than
any possible method of cure.

Warmth is the one essential to counteract
the tendency to motor paralysis. Next to
this, mechanical vibration can be made an

20I

efficient ally. Place the patient in a prone
position and make rapid and not too pro-
longed, stimulating applications to the prin-
cipal nerve centers, and the solar plexus.

Watch the pulse and the temperature, and
adjust the applications toward the restoration
of these to the normal.

Sleep, Disordered

Equalize the circulation and the nervous
tension; correct any existing bad dietetic
habits ; interdict late hearty meals, and divert
the blood from the brain to the trunk and
lower extremities. This can be done by
vibratory applications.

Smell, Disorders of

Various influences tend to obtund the nor-
mal susceptibility of the olfactory nerve.
Local vibratory stimulation is one of the most
powerful and effective means of restoring it.
See remarks under Paralysis, Special Senses,
and Olfactory Anesthesia.

Spermatorrhea

Apply vibration locally and to the lower
spinal centers. Remove all sources of reflex
irritation. Correct the mental delusion.

Spinal Accessory Nerve, Diseases of

These usually take the form of partial
paralyses. Remove the cause ; and apply vig-
orous but not too prolonged vibration over
the medulla and to the upper spinal centers.

202

Spinal Cord, Diseases of

The modern study of trophic centers in the
spinal cord, as already many times referred
to, has abundantly shown the importance of
regional relations in connection with diseases
and degenerations of the great ganglion-cells
of the anterior cornua, or of the anterior roots
of the spinal nerves. Such degenerations soon
give rise to atrophy of the muscle-fibers with
which the diseased nerve cells are related.

Irritation of the posterior cornua, or of the
posterior roots of the spinal nerves, is fre-
quently followed by neuralgic pains or erup-
tions, either pustular or vesicular, over the
related portions of the skin.

Following lesions in some portion of the
spinal gray matter, ulceration or even slough-
ing of related skin surfaces may occur.

Again, chronic joint diseases can be re-
ferred to certain obscure lesions of some por-
tion of the cord. In extreme cases these
lesions occur in cases of locomotor ataxia.

In all incipient lesions of the cord mechani-
cal vibration affords one of the very best
means of restoration to normal functions.
Keep in mind general rules, and treat each
case according to its individual peculiarities
and indications. In dseases of the second and
third lumbar centers the patellar reflex will
generally be found wanting.

203

Ankle-clonus is abolished by disease of the
first to the third sacral nerves, or of the lower
part of the lumbar enlargement. These tests
will frequently aid in the diagnosis.

In these cases discreetly applied and adapt-
ed vibration will do much more than has hith-
erto been accomplished by the use of the
faradic current.
Spleen, Diseases of

In either congestion or anemia of the spleen
apply vibration over the splenic centers in the
cord and over the organ itself by means of
the large concave disk, using short rapid
stroke and light pressure.
Stimulants

No term in medical literature is more in-
discriminately used. The modern elucidation
of the modus operandi of drugs and pharma-
ceutical preparations ought to have put an
end to this ambiguity and indefiniteness.

Mechanical vibration takes its place as a
true, legitimate and strictly physiologic meas^
ure.

See remarks on this topic under the cap-
tion of What is Stimulation?
Stomach, Functional Diseases of

In most forms of functional disturbances of
the stomach vibration frequently gives some
of its most brilliant results.

First, correct constipation, if present, and
regulate the diet. Then tone up the organ by

20^

direct applications, and through the associ-
ated spinal ganglia.

The special conditions in which the most
brilliant results can be attained are, dilata-
tion, atony, gastroptosis, nervous dyspepsia
and the various neuroses of the organ.

Each is to be carefully diagnosed and
treated on principles already and repeatedly
explained.

St Vitus's Dance
See Chorea.

Sympathetic Sjrstem, Diseases of

The direct and reflex ailments referable to
the sympathetic system form a very large
and important group. In many of them the
cord is also involved, as naturally follows
from the intimate relations of the two.

The principal disorders that, while dis-
tinct from the various structural diseases of
the cord and brain, are now generally asso-
ciated with disturbances and disorders of the
sympathetic system are, Addison's disease;
angina pectoris; asthma; convulsions; dia-
betes mellitus; enteralgia; epilepsy; gastral-
gia; goiter—exophthalmic; hemiatrophy; pro-
gressive facial hemicrania; hyperickosis-uni-
lateral; neuralgia cochleae; neuralgia sperma-
tica, and uterine neuralgia.

Other affections partially or at least indefi-
nitely related to disorders of the sympathetic
system are, atrophy-progressive muscular;

20S

glaucoma; diphtheritic paralysis; locomotor
ataxia; neuro-retinitis; pseudo-hypertrophic
paral3r8i89 and so-called reflex paralysis.

This is a formidable array, and ought to
suggest to every practitioner the overwhelm-
ing importance of looking w^ell to the integrity
and functional activity of the widely distrib-
uted and much underrated sympathetic nerv-
ous system.

For detailed directions see under the head
of each of the special disorders enumerated.

Tabes Dorsalis

See Locomotor Ataxia

Tabes Mesenterica

Bearing in mind the general principles laid
down, it is certainly worth while to try the
beneficial eflfects of mechano-vital vibration,
in arresting the advances of this insidious
disease. At the same time, invoke every pos-
sible tonic and supporting measure.

Taste, Disorders of
See Special Senses.

Tetanus

Vibratory measures offer some hope of so
stimulating the nerve centers and fortifying
the life forces that they may succeed in throw-
ing off the poison that so rapidly and so fre-
quently causes the unfortunate victims of
this fatal malady to succumb.

206

Third Nerve, Lesions of

See in connection with Facial Paralysis.
Thomsen's Disease

Reject the usual verdict that nothing can
be done for this disease, and invoke vibratory
therapeutics to the fullest extent, using the
best discretion of which you are capable as
to methods and modes of application.

Thrombosis

If a thrombus can be definitely located and
early treatment carefully applied, its dissolu-
tion may sometimes be affected by intelligent
resort to mechano-vital vibration.

Thyroid Gland, Diseases of

Stimulate the cervical ganglia and carefully
vibrate the gland itself. See under Goiter, etc.
Tic Doloreux

See Neuralgia.

Tinnitus

When the cause has been removed, if that
be practicable, — make careful but fairly vigor-
ous applications over the mastoid region,
stimulate the cervical and upper dorsal cen-
ters, and also the sides of the neck.

Tonsilitis

Make moderately vigorous applications to
the cervical ganglia, using the ball or brush
applicator, stimulate the liver and spleen, vi-
brate the upper cervical region, and behind
the rami of the inferior maxillaries. Also

207

stimulate all the lymphatics in the region, and
in every case look to it that the patient's blood
is rendered alkalin. It is, in these cases, along
with all the secretions, invariably acid, some-
times markedly so. Tonsilitis is by many
considered a pathognomonic symptom of uric
acid poisoning. Prescribe aspirin.
Touch, Disorders of

These may be either hyperesthetic or pares-
thetic. In either case study the central cause,
which will usually be found in a disordered
ganglia, or in the sympathetic system. Treat
this, and follow with local applications to re-
store the involved organ or area.
Tremor

When of functional origin, mechano-vital
vibration is the most natural remedy. Apply
on general principles.
Tumors

All neoplasms consisting of normal tissue
of the human body, or of such tissue only
slightly modified, are denominated benign,
and are amenable to physiologic treatment.
This treatment has been sufficiently outlined
under the various special heads. Adenoma,
Fibroma, Lymphadenoma, Carcinoma, etc.
Turgescence

This is another name for congestion, for
the removal and relief of which vibration is
eminently adapted.

See elsewhere under various heads,
a 08

Ulcers

Many forms of ulcers may be much bene-
fited, and other curative measures made much
more prompt and effective by means of vi-
bratory stimulation of the spinal centers, of
the general circulation, and afterwards of
the neighboring lymphatics.

Uric Acid Diathesis

All the usual remedies used to combat this
condition, with its myriad forms of manifesta-
tion, will be materially aided by thorough and
systematic stimulation of the spinal centers,
from the cervix to the sacrum, followed by
vigorous applications over the principal or-
gans of elimination — liver, spleen, stomach,
and bowels. Thus the emunctories and the
machinery of the vital laboratory can be in-
vigorated and made more effective.

Varicose Veins

Apply deep vibration over the spinal cen-
ters, more especially those related to the re-
gion affected. Apply rather firmly an elastic
cotton bandage, to support the weakened and
enlarged vein, and use lighter vibration over
the vein itself, using the large disk, or the rub-
ber ball applicator, with labile stroke, moving
from the extremities toward the trunk.

Venereal Diseases

The treatment of nearly all forms of venereal
diseases may be efficiently seconded by vibra-

209

tory applications, made in such a way as to act
as a general tonic to the entire system, and as
a stimulator of all available lymphatics. In
this way both elimination and phagocytism
may be promoted, and the action of other
remedies fortified.

Voice, Disorders of
See Larynptis.

Warts

Vibrate these troublesome growths, using a
small hard applicator, with rapid stroke and as
firm pressure as the patient will bear. At the
same time stimulate the lymphatics in the
vicinity and those leading toward the tnmk.

Writer's Crainp, or Scrivener's Palsy

Rest, and vibration of the muscles that are
either contracted or in a state of chronic spasm,
will soon relieve these cases. Use soft rubber
bell applicator at first, and follow with covered
or uncovered disc, according to conditions
present. Sometimes it will be necessary to
vigorously stimulate the spinal centers directly
or indirectly involved.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "Rhythmotherapy; a discussion of the physiologic basis and therapeutic potency of mechano-vital vibration, to which is added a dictionary of diseases with suggestions as to the technic of vibratory therapeutics"

See other formats